A velocity transformation method for the nonlinear dynamic simulation of railroad vehicle systems

The solution of the constrained multibody system equations of motion using the generalized coordinate partitioning method requires the identification of the dependent and independent coordinates. Using this approach, only the independent accelerations are integrated forward in time in order to determine the independent coordinates and velocities. Dependent coordinates are determined by solving the nonlinear constraint equations at the position level. If the constraint equations are highly nonlinear, numerical difficulties can be encountered or more Newton–Raphson iterations may be required in order to achieve convergence for the dependent variables. In this paper, a velocity transformation method is proposed for railroad vehicle systems in order to deal with the nonlinearity of the constraint equations when the vehicles negotiate curved tracks. In this formulation, two different sets of coordinates are simultaneously used. The first set is the absolute Cartesian coordinates which are widely used in general multibody system computer formulations. These coordinates lead to a simple form of the equations of motion which has a sparse matrix structure. The second set is the trajectory coordinates which are widely used in specialized railroad vehicle system formulations. The trajectory coordinates can be used to obtain simple formulations of the specified motion trajectory constraint equations in the case of railroad vehicle systems. While the equations of motion are formulated in terms of the absolute Cartesian coordinates, the trajectory accelerations are the ones which are integrated forward in time. The problems associated with the higher degree of differentiability required when the trajectory coordinates are used are discussed. Numerical examples are presented in order to examine the performance of the hybrid coordinate formulation proposed in this paper in the analysis of multibody railroad vehicle systems.     

An index 0 differential-algebraic equation formulation for multibody dynamics: Nonholonomic constraints

A method is presented for formulating and numerically integrating index 0 differential-algebraic equations of motion for multibody systems with holonomic and nonholonomic constraints. Tangent space coordinates are defined in configuration and velocity spaces as independent generalized coordinates that serve as state variables in the formulation. Orthogonal dependent coordinates and velocities are used to enforce position, velocity, and acceleration constraints to within specified error tolerances. Explicit and implicit numerical integration algorithms are presented and used in solution of three examples: one planar and two spatial. Numerical results verify that accurate results are obtained, satisfying all three forms of kinematic constraint to within error tolerances embedded in the formulation.     

Geometry and differentiability requirements in multibody railroad vehicle dynamic formulations

The dynamic equations of multibody railroad vehicle systems can be formulated using different sets of generalized coordinates; examples of these sets of coordinates are the absolute Cartesian and trajectory coordinates. The absolute coordinate based formulations do not require introducing an intermediate track coordinate system since all the absolute coordinates are defined in the global system. On the other hand, when the trajectory coordinates are used, a track coordinate system that follows the motion of a body in the railroad vehicle system is introduced. This track coordinate system is defined by the track geometry and the distance traveled by the body along the track centerline. The configuration of the body with respect to the track coordinate system is defined using five coordinates; two translations and three Euler angles. In this paper, the formulations based on the absolute and trajectory coordinates are compared. It is shown that these two sets of coordinates require different degrees of differentiability and smoothness. When an elastic contact formulation is used to study the wheel/rail dynamic interaction, there are significant differences in the order of the derivatives required in both formulations. In fact, as demonstrated in this study, in the absence of a contact constraint formulation, higher order derivatives with respect to geometric parameters are still required when the equations are formulated using the trajectory coordinates. The formulation of the constraints used in the analysis of the wheel/rail contact is discussed and it is shown that when the absolute coordinates are used, only third order derivatives need to be evaluated. The relationship between the track frame used in railroad vehicle dynamics and the Frenet frame used in the theory of curves to describe the curve geometry is also discussed in this paper. Based on the analysis presented in this paper, the advantages and drawbacks of a hybrid method which employs both the absolute and trajectory coordinates and planar contact conditions in order to reduce the number of contact constraints and relax the differentiability requirements are discussed. In this method, the absolute coordinates are used to formulate the equations of motion of the railroad vehicle system. The absolute coordinate solution can be used to determine the trajectory coordinates and their time derivatives. Using the trajectory coordinates, the motion of the body in the vehicle with respect to the track coordinate system can be predicted and used in the formulation of the planar contact model.     

A spatial motion analysis model of tracked vehicles with torsion bar type suspension

A spatial motion analysis model for high-mobility tracked vehicles was constructed for evaluation of ride performance, steerability, and stability on rough terrain. Ordinary high-mobility tracked vehicles are equipped with independent torsion bar type suspension system, which consists of road arms and road wheels. The road arm rotates about the axis of torsion bar, and rigidity of the torsion bar and cohesion of damper absorb sudden force change exerted by interaction with the ground. The motion of the road arms should be considered for the evaluation of off-road vehicle performance in numerical analysis model. In order to obtain equations of motion for the tracked vehicles, the equations of motion for the vehicle body and for the assembly of a road wheel and a road arm were constructed separately at first. Two sets of equations were reduced with the constraint equations, which the road arms are mechanically connected to the vehicle body. The equations of motion for the vehicle have been expressed with minimal set of variables of the same number as the degrees of freedom for the vehicle motion. We also included the effect of track tension in the equations without constructing equations of motion for the tracks. Numerical simulation based on the vehicle model and experiment of a scale model passing over a trapezoidal speed bump were performed in order to examine the numerical model. It was found that the numerical results reasonably predict the vehicle motion.     

Dynamics of vehicles with high gravity centre

The vehicles with high gravity centre are more prone to roll over. The paper deals with a method of dynamics analysis of fire engines which is an example of these types of vehicle. Algorithms for generating the equations of motion have been formulated by homogenous transformations and Lagrange's equation. The model presented in this article consists of a system of rigid bodies connected one with another forming an open kinematic chain. Road maneuvers such as a lane change and negotiating a circular track have been presented as the main simulations when a car loses its stability. The method has been verified by comparing numerical results with results obtained by experimental measurements performed during road tests.     

Application of joint coordinates and homogeneous transformations to modeling of vehicle dynamics

The paper presents a method of modeling dynamics of multibody systems with open and closed kinematic chains. The joint coordinates and homogeneous transformations are applied in order to formulate the equations of motion of a rigid body. In this method, constraint equations are introduced only in the case when closed subchains are considered or when the joint reactions have to be calculated. This allows the number of generalized coordinates in the system to be reduced in comparison to the case when absolute coordinates are applied. It is shown how the method can be applied to modeling of vehicle dynamics. The calculation results are compared with those obtained when the ADAMS/Car package is used. Experimental verification has been performed and is reported in the paper, as well. In both cases, a good correspondence of results has been achieved. Final remarks concerning advantages and disadvantages of the method are formulated at the end of the paper.     

多刚体系统动力学的子系统递推法

本文采用递归推导并定义铰基矢阵得到以相对速度或伪速度表示的动力学方程。对非树系统利用回路转换矩阵及铰基矢阵自动建立约束方程,并用奇异值分解缩聚法得到以独立伪速度为变量的动力学方程。并导出递推计算公式便于程序执行。相应的通用程序SNERM已产生。     

Dynamic recursive decoupling method for closed-loop flexible mechanical systems

In this paper, a new method for the dynamic analysis of a closed-loop flexible kinematic mechanical system is presented. The kinematic and force models are developed using absolute reference, joint relative, and elastic coordinates as well as joint reaction forces. This recursive formulation leads to a system of loosely coupled equations of motion. In a closed-loop kinematic chain, cuts are made at selected auxiliary joints in order to form spanning tree structures. Compatibility conditions and reaction force relationships at the auxiliary joints are adjoined to the equations of open-loop mechanical systems in order to form closed-loop dynamic equations. Using the sparse matrix structure of these equations and the fact that the joint reaction forces associated with elastic degrees of freedom do not represent independent variables, a method for decoupling the joint and elastic accelerations is developed. Unlike existing recursive formulations, this method does not require inverse or factorization of large non-linear matrices. It leads to small systems of equations whose dimensions are independent of the number of elastic degrees of freedom. The application of dynamic decoupling method in dynamic analysis of closed-loop deformable multibody systems is also discussed in this paper. The use of the numerical algorithm developed in this investigation is illustrated by a closed-loop flexible four-bar mechanism.     

An Augmented Formulation for Mechanical Systems with Non-Generalized Coordinates: Application to Rigid Body Contact Problems

In computational multibody algorithms, the kinematic constraintequations that describe mechanical joints and specified motiontrajectories must be satisfied at the position, velocity andacceleration levels. For most commonly used constraint equations, onlyfirst and second partial derivatives of position vectors with respect tothe generalized coordinates are required in order to define theconstraint Jacobian matrix and the first and second derivatives of theconstraints with respect to time. When the kinematic and dynamicequations of the multibody systems are formulated in terms of a mixedset of generalized and non-generalized coordinates, higher partialderivatives with respect to these non-generalized coordinates arerequired, and the neglect of these derivatives can lead to significanterrors. In this paper, the implementation of a contact model in generalmultibody algorithms is presented as an example of mechanical systemswith non-generalized coordinates. The kinematic equations that describethe contact between two surfaces of two bodies in the multibody systemare formulated in terms of the system generalized coordinates and thesurface parameters. Each contact surface is defined using twoindependent parameters that completely define the tangent and normalvectors at an arbitrary point on the body surface. In the contact modeldeveloped in this study, the points of contact are searched for on lineduring the dynamic simulation by solving the nonlinear differential andalgebraic equations of the constrained multibody system. It isdemonstrated in this paper that in the case of a point contact andregular surfaces, there is only one independent generalized contactconstraint force despite the fact that five constraint equations areused to enforce the contact conditions.     

柔性机械臂动力学方程单向递推组集方法

本文基于Jourdain变分原理提出一种柔性机械臂动力学方程的单向递推组集方法。用规则标号法描述系统中物体和铰的邻接关系;用铰相对坐标和模态坐标分别描述物体的大位移运动和弹性变形。文末以三连杆机器人操作手为例说明本文建模的过程。     

Dynamic Analysis of Spatial Linkages: A Recursive Approach

In this paper, recursive equations of motion of spatial linkages are presented. The method uses the concepts of linear and angular momentums to generate the rigid body equations of motion in terms of the Cartesian coordinates of a dynamically equivalent constrained system of particles, without introducing any rotational coordinates and the corresponding rotational transformation matrix. For the open-chain system, the equations of motion are generated recursively along the serial chains. Closed-chain system is transformed to open-chain by cutting suitable kinematic joints and introducing cut–joint constraints. An example is chosen to demonstrate the generality and simplicity of the developed formulation.     

On the Computer Formulations of the Wheel/Rail Contact Problem

In this investigation, four nonlinear dynamic formulations that can be used in the analysis of the wheel/rail contact are presented, compared and their performance is evaluated. Two of these formulations employ nonlinear algebraic kinematic constraint equations to describe the contact between the wheel and the rail (constraint approach), while in the other two formulations the contact force is modeled using a compliant force element (elastic approach). The goal of the four formulations is to provide accurate nonlinear modeling of the contact between the wheel and the rail, which is crucial to the success of any computational algorithm used in the dynamic analysis of railroad vehicle systems. In the formulations based on the elastic approach, the wheel has six degrees of freedom with respect to the rail, and the normal contact forces are defined as function of the penetration using Hertzs contact theory or using assumed stiffness and damping coefficients. The first elastic method is based on a search for the contact locations using discrete nodal points. As previously presented in the literature, this method can lead to impulsive forces due to the abrupt change in the location of the contact point from one time step to the next. This difficulty is avoided in the second elastic approach in which the contact points are determined by solving a set of algebraic equations. In the formulations based on the constraint approach, on the other hand, the case of a non-conformal contact is assumed, and nonlinear kinematic contact constraint equations are used to impose the contact conditions at the position, velocity and acceleration levels. This approach leads to a model, in which the wheel has five degrees of freedom with respect to the rail. In the constraint approach, the wheel penetration and lift are not permitted, and the normal contact forces are calculated using the technique of Lagrange multipliers and the augmented form of the system dynamic equations. Two equivalent constraint formulations that employ two different solution procedures are discussed in this investigation. The first method leads to a larger system of equations by augmenting all the contact constraint equations to the dynamic equations of motion, while in the second method an embedding procedure is used to obtain a reduced system of equations from which the surface parameter accelerations are systematically eliminated. Numerical results are presented in order to examine the performance of various methods discussed in this study.     

Finite element modeling of contact conditions in multibody system dynamics

In this paper a new method is developed for the dynamic analysis of contact conditions in flexible multibody systems undergoing a rolling type of motion. The relative motion between the two contacting bodies is treated as a constraint condition describing their kinematic and geometric relations. Equations of motion of the system are presented in a matrix form making use of Kane's equations and finite element method. The method developed has been implemented in a general purpose program called DARS and applied to the simulation and analysis of a rotating wheel on a track. Both the bodies are assumed flexible and discretized using a three dimensional 8-noded isoparametric elements. The time variant constraint conditions are imposed on the nodal points located at the peripheral surfaces of the bodies under consideration. The simulation is carried out under two different boundary conditions describing the support of the track. The subsequent constraint forces associated with the generalized coordinates of the system are computed and plotted. The effects of friction are also discussed.     

Dynamic Analysis of Planar Linkages: A Recursive Approach

In the present study, the equations of motion for generalized planar linkages that consist of a system of rigid bodies with all common types of kinematic joints are derived using a recursive approach. The system of rigid bodies is replaced by a dynamically equivalent constrained system of particles. Then for the resulting equivalent system of particles, the concepts of linear and angular momentums are used to generate the equations of motion without either introducing any rotational coordinates or distributing the external forces and force couples over the particles. For the open loop case, the equations of motion are generated recursively along the open chains. For the closed loop case, the system is transformed to open loops by cutting suitable kinematic joints and introducing cut-joints kinematic constraints. An example of a multi-branch closed-loop system is chosen to demonstrate the generality and simplicity of the proposed method.     

车辆纵向非光滑多体动力学建模与数值算法研究

在建立车辆纵向多体系统的动力学模型中, 将车身与车轮视为刚体, 两者通过减振器链接; 将传动系统视为一个圆盘通过扭簧和阻尼器与驱动轮连接; 将车轮与路面间的接触力简化为法向约束力、摩擦力和滚阻力偶,其中摩擦力的模型采用库仑干摩擦模型. 采用笛卡尔坐标作为该系统的广义坐标用于描述该系统的位形, 给出系统单双边的约束方程, 应用第一类拉格朗日方法建立了系统的动力学方程. 由于摩擦与滚阻的非光滑性, 使得该系统动力学方程不连续. 为便于计算, 建立了车轮与路面接触点的相对切向加速度与摩擦力余量的互补条件、车轮角加速度与滚阻力偶余量的互补条件, 以及车轮轮心法向加速度与路面法向约束力的互补条件. 将接触—分离、黏滞—滑移的判断问题转化成线性互补问题的求解, 并给出了具有约束稳定化的基于事件驱动法的数值计算方法. 最后, 应用该方法对车辆纵向多体系统进行了仿真, 分析了输出扭矩、摩擦及滚阻系数对其动力学行为的影响.      

Dynamics and control of variable geometry truss manipulator

Variable geometry truss manipulator(VGTM) has potential to work in the future space applications, of which a dynamic model is important to dynamic analysis and control of the system. In this paper, an approach is presented to model the dynamic equations of a VGTM by independent variables, which consists of two double-octahedral truss units and a 3-revolute-prismatic-spherical(3-RPS) parallel manipulator. In this approach, the kinematic recursive relations of two adjacent bodies and geometric constrains are used to deduce the kinematic equations of the VGTM, and Jourdain's velocity variation principle is adopted to establish the dynamic equations of the system. The validity of the proposed dynamic model is verified by comparison of numerical simulations with the software ADAMS. Besides, an active controller for trajectory tracking of the system is designed by the computed torque method. The effectiveness of the controller is numerically proved.     

A mathematical model for spatial motion of tracked vehicles on soft ground

A mathematical model which predicts spatial motion of tracked vehicles on non-level terrain has been developed. The motion of the vehicle is represented by three translational and three rotational degrees of freedom. In order to incorporate the inelastic deformation of soil, a soil-track interaction model is introduced; this constitutive model relates the traction exerted on the track by soil to the slip velocity and sinkage of the track. The model is based upon available soil plasticity theories and furnishes mechanics-based interpretation of Bekker's empirical relations. For planar motion the proposed model reduces to the existing equations of motion by introducing kinematic constraints on the vertical translation, pitching and rolling degrees-of-freedom.