A general purpose formulation for nonsmooth dynamics including large rotations: application to the woodpecker toy

JAVIER GALVEZ; ALEJANDRO CÓSIMO; OLIVIER BRÜLS; FEDERICO J. CAVALIERI; ALBERTO CARDONA

Anaheim, CA

Congreso; International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference; 2019

The aim of this work is to extend the finite element multi-body dynamics approach to problems involving frictional contacts and impacts. Since rigid bodies and joints involve bilateral constraints, it is important to avoid any drift phenomenon.Therefore, the nonsmooth generalized-alpha method is used, whichimposes the constraints both at position and at velocity levels. Itslow intrusiveness allows one to reuse an existing library of elements without major modifications. The study of the woodpeckertoy dynamics sets up a good example to show the capabilities ofthe nonsmooth generalized-alpha within the context of a general finite element framework. This example has already been studiedby many authors who generally adopt a model with a minimalset of coordinates and small rotations. We show that using a finite element approach, the equations of motion can be assembledautomatically, and large rotations can be easily considered.