Substructure simulation of viscoelastic-elastic multibody systems

A substructure synthesis method is proposed for modeling the dynamic behavi or of viscoelastic-elastic multibody system. The governing differential equ ations of motion are derived based on the Lagrange equations. Viscoelastic damping is incorporated into multibody systems to evaluate its effect on st ructural response. The viscoelastic damping proposed is based on layers of viscoelastic polymer directly attached to the systems. With the use of subs tructure synthesis method, the number of elastic coordinates needed in the approximate procedure is reduced. Numerical examples are presented to demon strate the capabilities and efficiency of the proposed method. A comparison of the dynamic response has been presented for a two-link system with and without viscoelastic damping.