Computational Analysis and Experimental Investigation of Impacts in Multibody Systems

Abstract

For many engineering applications the multibody system approach proves to be most efficient for the analysis of the overall motion. Collisions between moving bodies might result in impacts which interrupt the overall motion. During impact kinetic energy is lost by wave propagation in the bodies and/or by plastic deformation of the contact region, see Goldsmith [5], Johnson [10] and Stronge [20]. For multibody system simulation on the macroscale, these kinetic energy losses during impact are represented by the coefficient of restitution, see e.g. Glocker [4] and Pfeiffer and Glocker [12]. However, the coefficient of restitution cannot be computed within the multibody system approach and must be estimated from costly experiments or experience. Alternatively the coefficient of restitution may be evaluated by additional numerical simulations on a fast time scale, resulting in a multiscale simulation approach as presented in References [9, 14, 15, 18].