The Newmark Integration Method for Simulation of Multibody Systems: Analytical Considerations

Author(s):  
B. Gavrea ◽  
D. Negrut ◽  
F. A. Potra

When simulating the behavior of a mechanical system, the time evolution of the generalized coordinates used to represent the configuration of the model is computed as the solution of a combined set of ordinary differential and algebraic equations (DAEs). There are several ways in which the numerical solution of the resulting index 3 DAE problem can be approached. The most well-known and time-honored algorithms are the direct discretization approach, and the state-space reduction approach, respectively. In the latter, the problem is reduced to a minimal set of potentially new generalized coordinates in which the problem assumes the form of a pure second order set of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE). This approach is very accurate, but computationally intensive, especially when dealing with large mechanical systems that contain flexible parts, stiff components, and contact/impact. The direct discretization approach is less but nevertheless sufficiently accurate yet significantly faster, and it is the approach that is considered in this paper. In the context of direct discretization methods, approaches based on the Backward Differentiation Formulas (BDF) have been the traditional choice for more than 20 years. This paper proposes a new approach in which BDF methods are replaced by the Newmark formulas. Local convergence analysis is carried out for the proposed method, and step-size control, error estimation, and nonlinear system solution related issues are discussed in detail. A series of two simple models are used to validate the method. The global convergence analysis and a computational-efficiency comparison with the most widely used numerical integrator available in the MSC.ADAMS commercial simulation package are forthcoming. The new method has been implemented successfully for industrial strength Dynamic Analysis simulations in the 2005 version of the MSC.ADAMS software and used very effectively for the simulation of systems with more than 15,000 differential-algebraic equations.

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Negrut ◽  
Rajiv Rampalli ◽  
Gisli Ottarsson ◽  
Anthony Sajdak

The paper presents theoretical and implementation aspects related to a numerical integrator used for the simulation of large mechanical systems with flexible bodies and contact/impact. The proposed algorithm is based on the Hilber-Hughes-Taylor (HHT) implicit method and is tailored to answer the challenges posed by the numerical solution of index 3 differential-algebraic equations that govern the time evolution of a multibody system. One of the salient attributes of the algorithm is the good conditioning of the Jacobian matrix associated with the implicit integrator. Error estimation, integration step-size control, and nonlinear system stopping criteria are discussed in detail. Simulations using the proposed algorithm of an engine model, a model with contacts, and a model with flexible bodies indicate a 2 to 3 speedup factor when compared against benchmark MSC.ADAMS runs. The proposed HHT-based algorithm has been released in the 2005 version of the MSC.ADAMS/Solver.


Author(s):  
H. Ren ◽  
W. D. Zhu

A spatial discretization and substructure method is developed to calculate the dynamic responses of one-dimensional systems, which consist of length-variant distributed-parameter components such as strings, rods, and beams, and lumped-parameter components such as point masses and rigid bodies. The dependent variable, such as the displacement, of a distributed-parameter component is decomposed into boundary-induced terms and internal terms. The boundary-induced terms are interpolated from the boundary motions, and the internal terms are approximated by an expansion of trial functions that satisfy the corresponding homogeneous boundary conditions. All the matching conditions at the interfaces of the components are satisfied, and the expansions of the dependent variables of the distributed-parameter components absolutely and uniformly converge. The spatial derivatives of the dependent variables, which are related to the internal forces/moments, such as the axial forces, bending moments, and shear forces, can be accurately calculated. Assembling the component equations and the geometric matching conditions that arise from the continuity relations leads to a system of differential algebraic equations (DAEs). When some matching conditions are linear algebraic equations, some generalized coordinates can be represented by others so that the number of the generalized coordinates can be reduced. The methodology is applied to moving elevator cable-car systems in Part II of this work.


Author(s):  
William Prescott

This paper will examine the importance of applying scaling to the equations of motion for multibody dynamic systems when applied to industrial applications. If a Cartesian formulation is used to formulate the equations of motion of a multibody dynamic system the resulting equations are a set of differential algebraic equations (DAEs). The algebraic components of the DAEs arise from appending the joint equations used to model revolute, cylindrical, translational and other joints to the Newton-Euler dynamic equations of motion. Stability issues can arise in an ill-conditioned Jacobian matrix of the integration method this will result in poor convergence of the implicit integrator’s Newton method. The repeated failures of the Newton’s method will require a small step size and therefore simulations that require long run times to complete. Recent advances in rescaling the equations of motion have been proposed to address this problem. This paper will see if these methods or a variant addresses not only stability concerns, but also efficiency. The scaling techniques are applied to the Gear-Gupta-Leimkuhler (GGL) formulation for multibody problems by embedding them into the commercial multibody code (MBS) Virtual. Lab Motion and then use them to solve an industrial sized automotive example to see if performance is improved.


Author(s):  
Dan Negrut ◽  
Rajiv Rampalli ◽  
Gisli Ottarsson ◽  
Anthony Sajdak

The paper presents theoretical and implementation aspects related to a new numerical integrator available in the 2005 version of the MSC.ADAMS/Solver C++. The starting point for the new integrator is the Hilber-Hughes-Taylor method (HHT, also known as α-method) that has been widely used in the finite element community for more than two decades. The method implemented is tailored to answer the challenges posed by the numerical solution of index 3 Differential Algebraic Equations that govern the time evolution of a multi-body system. The proposed integrator was tested with more than 1,600 models prior to its release in the 2005 version of the simulation package MSC.ADAMS. In this paper an all-terrain-vehicle model with flexible chassis is used to prove the good efficiency and accuracy of the method.


1998 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 575-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radu Serban ◽  
Edward J. Haug

Models of the dynamics of multibody systems generally result in a set of differential-algebraic equations (DAE). State-space methods for solving the DAE of motion are based on reduction of the DAE to ordinary differential equations (ODE), by means of local parameterizations of the constraint manifold that must be often modified during a simulation. In this paper it is shown that, for vehicle multibody systems, generalized coordinates that are dual to suspension and/or control forces in the model are independent for the entire range of motion of the system. Therefore, these additional coordinates, together with Cartesian coordinates describing the position and orientation of the chassis, form a set of globally independent coordinates. In addition to the immediate advantage of avoiding the computationally expensive redefinition of local parameterization in a state-space formulation, the existence of globally independent coordinates leads to efficient algorithms for recovery of dependent generalized coordinates. A topology based approach to identify efficient computational sequences is presented. Numerical examples with realistic vehicle handling models demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed approach, relative to the conventional Cartesian coordinate formulation, yielding real-time for vehicle simulation. [S1050-0472(00)00404-9]


Author(s):  
Olivier A. Bauchau ◽  
Alexander Epple ◽  
Carlo L. Bottasso

This paper addresses practical issues associated with the numerical enforcement of constraints in flexible multibody systems, which are characterized by index-3 differential algebraic equations (DAEs). The need to scale the equations of motion is emphasized; in the proposed approach, they are scaled based on simple physical arguments, and an augmented Lagrangian term is added to the formulation. Time discretization followed by a linearization of the resulting equations leads to a Jacobian matrix that is independent of the time step size, h; hence, the condition number of the Jacobian and error propagation are both O(h0): the numerical solution of index-3 DAEs behaves as in the case of regular ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Since the scaling factor depends on the physical properties of the system, the proposed scaling decreases the dependency of this Jacobian on physical properties, further improving the numerical conditioning of the resulting linearized equations. Because the scaling of the equations is performed before the time and space discretizations, its benefits are reaped for all time integration schemes. The augmented Lagrangian term is shown to be indispensable if the solution of the linearized system of equations is to be performed without pivoting, a requirement for the efficient solution of the sparse system of linear equations. Finally, a number of numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach to scaling.


Author(s):  
Adrian Sandu ◽  
Dan Negrut ◽  
Corina Sandu ◽  
Edward J. Haug ◽  
Florian A. Potra

When performing dynamic analysis of a constrained mechanical system, a set of index 3 Differential-Algebraic Equations (DAE) describes the time evolution of the system. The paper presents a state-space based method for the numerical solution of the resulting DAE. A subset of so called independent generalized coordinates, equal in number to the number of degrees of freedom of the mechanical system, is used to express the time evolution of the mechanical system. The second order statespace ordinary differential equations (SSODE) that describe the time variation of independent coordinates are numerically integrated using a Rosenbrock type formula. For stiff mechanical systems, the proposed algorithm is shown to significantly reduce simulation times when compared to state of the art existent algorithms. The better efficiency is due to the use of an L-stable integrator and a rigorous and general approach to providing analytical derivatives required by it.


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