Discrete variational Lie group formulation of geometrically exact beam dynamics

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to derive a structure preserving integrator for geometrically exact beam dynamics, by using a Lie group variational integrator. Both spatial and temporal discretization are implemented in a geometry preserving manner. The resulting scheme preserves both the discrete momentum maps and symplectic structures, and exhibits almost-perfect energy conservation. Comparisons with existing numerical schemes are provided and the convergence behavior is analyzed numerically.