3-DIMENSIONAL RIGID-BODY COLLISIONS WITH MULTIPLE CONTACT POINTS

This article deals with three-dimensional collisions of rigid, kinemat ic chains with an external surface while in contact with other surface s. We concentrate on a special class of kinematic chain problems where there are multiple contact points during the impact process. A differ ential formulation based algorithm is used to obtain solutions that ut ilize the kinematic, kinetic, and the energetic definitions of the coe fficient of restitution. Planar and spatial collisions of a three-link chain with two contact points are numerically studied to compare the outcomes predicted by each approach. Particular emphasis is placed on the relation between the post and pre-impact energies, slippage and re bounds at the contact points, and differences among planar and nearly planar three-dimensional solutions.