Multibody dynamics sensitivity analysis by discrete time transfer matrix method

Abstract

Sensitivity analysis is one of the most important approaches to measure the influence of design variables of complex multibody systems on objective functions (constraints) and guide system design optimization. The main purpose of this paper is to establish an efficient global sensitivity calculation method based on the multibody system discrete time transfer matrix method (MS-DT-TMM) and the Sobol sensitivity algorithm. The system's dynamics model is established and solved by MSDT- TMM, which does not require the global dynamics equation of the system, and avoids the problem that the calculation speed declines rapidly caused by the system scales increasing by the ordinary dynamics methods. Then, the Sobol method is applied for the subsequent global sensitivity solution. As MS-DT-TMM has high calculation efficiency, the proposed method will provide a fast calculation mean for sensitivity analysis and dynamics design of complex mechanical systems.