SUDDEN IMPOSITION OF A MASSLESS-LINK CONSTRAINT IN MULTIBODY SYSTEMS WITH STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS

A general approach for modeling the dynamics of an elastic multibody s ystem subjected to a sudden imposition of constraints is presented. Th e formulation accounts for systems with interconnected rigid and flexi ble members. The types of suddenly imposed constraints considered by t his paper are those representing a fixed relative displacement between two points on two different mechanical members of the system. The ela stodynamic model utilizes the finite element method in conjunction wit h the generalized impulse momentum principle. A numerical solution sch eme is devised for the reduced order model by invoking modal transform ation. The application of this technique to a numerical example is als o discussed.