NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF MECHANICAL SYSTEMS USING METHODS FOR DIFFERENTIAL-ALGEBRAIC EQUATIONS

A simple approach to the numerical simulation of mechanical systems consisting of rigid and flexible bodies is presented. The mechanical system may consist of rigid bodies, different types of flexible bodies, joints and actuators and may have arbitrary topological structure with kinematical loops. The equations of motion are formulated as a large sparse system of equations in absolute co-ordinates as well as relative co-ordinates. These equations are numerically integrated as a system of differential-algebraic equations using modern numerical methods.