Impact responses of multi-body systems with consistent and lumped masses

A method is presented for the dynamic analysis of inertia-variant constrained mechanical systems of interconnected rigid and flexible components which may be impacting on one another. The flexible bodies are permitted to undergo large angular rotations. Elastic co-ordinaets of flexible components are described by using sets of shape functions or shape vectors, resulting in consistent or lumped mass formulations that account for the non-linear inertia coupling between the reference motion and elastic deformations. The consistent formulation allows the use of the Rayleigh-Ritz method or the finite element method, while the lumped mass formulation allows the direct use of assumed shape vectors or experimentally identified data. The generalized impulse momentum relations for all bodies of the constrained mechanical system are formulated and solved to account for jump discontinuities in system velocities and constraint reaction forces resulting from impact. Numerical examples illustrate the effect of using estimated dynamic characteristics as well as using truncated sets of elastic co-ordinates to represent the elastic motion of flexible bodies on the accuracy of the dynamic model of a multi-body system subjected to shock loading conditions due to the impacts.     

Viscoelastic analysis of multi-body systems using the finite element method

A study of the effect of viscoelastic material damping on the dynamic response of multibody systems, consisting of interconnected rigid, elastic and viscoelastic components, is presented. The motion of each elastic or viscoelastic body is identified by using three sets of modes: rigid body, reference and normal modes. Rigid body modes describe translation and large angular rotation of a body reference. Reference modes are the result of imposing the body-axis conditions. Normal modes define the deformation of the body relative to the body reference. Constraints between different components are formulated by using a set of non-linear algebraic equations that can be introduced to the dynamic formulation by using a Lagrange multiplier technique or can be utilized to eliminate dependent co-ordinates by partitioning the constraint Jacobian matrix. In developing the system equations of motion of the viscoelastic component, an assumption of a linear viscoelastic model is made. A Kelvin-Voigt model is employed, wherein the stress is assumed to be proportional to the strain and its time derivative. The formulation yields a constant damping matrix and the damping forces depend only on the local deformation; thus, no additional coupling between the reference and elastic co-ordinates appears in the formulation when considering the viscoelastic effects. It is demonstrated, by a numerical example, that the viscoelastic material damping can have a significant effect on the dynamic response of multibody systems.     

Cartesian Dynamics of Simple Molecules I Diatomics and Centrosymmetric Triatomics

A simple spring model for molecular vibrations is described in which Cartesian co-ordinates are used for both longitudinal and transverse displacements. The transverse restoring forces are shown to be electrostatic in origin and much weaker than the elastic longitudinal forces. The technique is applied to diatomic and centrosymmetric triatomic molecules. In the latter case, an analytical expression for the bending mode frequency is obtained which is equivalent to that derived by conventional methods using bending constants and internal co-ordinates. The model offers certain advantages when applied to the dynamics of crystals, for which Cartesian co-ordinates, aligned with the unit cell axes, are the natural choice. Reference is made to recent work on molecular and ionic crystals using extensions of this model.     

THE NON-LINEAR DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF AN ELASTIC LINKAGE MECHANISM WITH CLEARANCES

In terms of Newton two-state model, by choosing two sets of generalized co-ordinates, this paper develops a unified dynamic model between the separation and collision process for the elastic linkage mechanism. This model incorporates the effects of rigidity and elasticity coupling and the angular velocity of crank is assumed to be variable in the operation. In addition, this paper provides a more simple and practical numerical solution method for convenient analysis. Through an example, the dynamic responses of the elastic linkage mechanism with clearances are analyzed, both the effects of elasticity and clearance on the dynamic behaviors of the mechanism are analyzed simultaneously and the non-linear behaviors caused by the clearance joints are analyzed by the dynamic model of rigid mechanism.     

Vibration analysis of harmonically excited non-linear system using the method of multiple scales

An analytical method is presented for evaluation of the steady state periodic behavior of non-linear systems. This method is based on the substructure synthesis formulation and a multiple scales procedure, which is applied to the analysis of non-linear responses. A complex non-linear system is divided into substructures, of which equations are approximately transformed to modal co-ordinates including non-linear term under the reasonable procedure. Then, the equations are synthesized into the overall system and the solution of the non-linear system can be obtained. Based on the method of multiple scales, the proposed procedure reduces the size of large-degree-of-freedom problem in solving the non-linear equations. Feasibility and advantages of the proposed method are illustrated by the application of the analytic procedure to the non-linear rotating machine system as a large mechanical structure system. Results obtained are reported to be an efficient approach with respect to non-linear response prediction when compared with other conventional methods.     

A fixed-mesh method for incompressible flow–structure systems with finite solid deformations

A fixed-mesh algorithm is proposed for simulating flow–structure interactions such as those occurring in biological systems, in which both the fluid and solid are incompressible and the solid deformations are large. Several of the well-known difficulties in simulating such flow–structure interactions are avoided by formulating a single set of equations of motion on a fixed Eulerian mesh. The solid’s deformation is tracked to compute elastic stresses by an overlapping Lagrangian mesh. In this way, the flow–structure interaction is formulated as a distributed body force and singular surface force acting on an otherwise purely fluid system. These forces, which depend on the solid elastic stress distribution, are computed on the Lagrangian mesh by a standard finite-element method and then transferred to the fixed Eulerian mesh, where the joint momentum and continuity equations are solved by a finite-difference method. The constitutive model for the solid can be quite general. For the force transfer, standard immersed-boundary and immersed-interface methods can be used and are demonstrated. We have also developed and demonstrated a new projection method that unifies the transfer of the surface and body forces in a way that exactly conserves momentum; the interface is still effectively sharp for this approach. The spatial convergence of the method is observed to be between first- and second-order, as in most immersed-boundary methods for membrane flows. The algorithm is demonstrated by the simulations of an advected elastic disk, a flexible leaflet in an oscillating flow, and a model of a swimming jellyfish.     

Dynamic response of composite plates with cut-outs,part II: Clamped-clamped plates

The forced and free dynamic response of plates with cut-outs formulated in Part I [1] is used to investigate the effect of cut-outs on the natural frequencies of clamped-clamped plates. The size, shape and location of the cut-out is expressed as a displacement dependent external loading. The plates considered are homogeneous and anisotropic. Lagrange's equations of motion lead to an infinite system of differential equations in time-dependent generalized co-ordinates with generalized forces which include the effects of the cut-outs. There is an infinite system of frequency equations for free vibrations. The infinite system is truncated to a finite system of equations depending upon the accuracy desired in frequency values. Results are given for square, clamped-clamped plates with centrally located square cut-outs for different modulus ratios. Good agreement is obtained when results for isotropic plates with cut-outs are compared with available theoretical and experimental results.     

Determination of the steady state response of viscoelastically point-supported rectangular specially orthotropic plates by an energy-based finite difference method

A method based on a variational procedure in conjunction with a finite difference method is used to examine the free vibration characteristics and steady state response to a sinusoidally varying force applied at the center of a viscoelastically point-supported orthotropic elastic plate of rectangular shape. Using the energy-based finite difference method, the problem is reduced to the solution of a system of algebraic equations. The influence of the mechanical properties, and of the damping of the supports to the mode shapes and to the steady state response of viscoelastically point-supported rectangular plates is investigated numerically for a concentrated load at the center for various values of the mechanical properties characterizing the anisotropy of the plate material and for various damping ratios. The results are given for the frequencies and mode shapes of the first three symmetrical modes. Convergence studies are made. The validity of the present approach is demonstrated by comparing the results with other solutions based on the Kirchhoff-Love plate theory.     

A multirate time integrator for regularized Stokeslets

The method of regularized Stokeslets is a numerical approach to approximating solutions of fluid–structure interaction problems in the Stokes regime. Regularized Stokeslets are fundamental solutions to the Stokes equations with a regularized point-force term that are used to represent forces generated by a rigid or elastic object interacting with the fluid. Due to the linearity of the Stokes equations, the velocity at any point in the fluid can be computed by summing the contributions of regularized Stokeslets, and the time evolution of positions can be computed using standard methods for ordinary differential equations. Rigid or elastic objects in the flow are usually treated as immersed boundaries represented by a collection of regularized Stokeslets coupled together by virtual springs which determine the forces exerted by the boundary in the fluid. For problems with boundaries modeled by springs with large spring constants, the resulting ordinary differential equations become stiff, and hence the time step for explicit time integration methods is severely constrained. Unfortunately, the use of standard implicit time integration methods for the method of regularized Stokeslets requires the solution of dense nonlinear systems of equations for many relevant problems. Here, an alternate strategy using an explicit multirate time integration scheme based on spectral deferred corrections is incorporated that in many cases can significantly decrease the computational cost of the method. The multirate methods are higher-order methods that treat different portions of the ODE explicitly with different time steps depending on the stiffness of each component. Numerical examples on two nontrivial three-dimensional problems demonstrate the increased efficiency of the multi-explicit approach with no significant increase in numerical error.     

Vibrations of double-nanotube systems with mislocation via a newly developed van der Waals model

This study deals with transverse vibrations of two adjacent-parallel-mislocated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) under various end conditions. These tubes interact with each other and their surrounding medium through the intertube van der Waals (vdW) forces, and existing bonds between their atoms and those of the elastic medium. The elastic energy of such forces due to the deflections of nanotubes is appropriately modeled by defining a vdW force density function. In the previous works, vdW forces between two identical tubes were idealized by a uniform form of this function. The newly introduced function enables us to investigate the influences of both intertube free distance and longitudinal mislocation on the natural transverse frequencies of the nanosystem which consists of two dissimilar tubes. Such crucial issues have not been addressed yet, even for simply supported tubes. Using nonlocal Timoshenko and higher-order beam theories as well as Hamilton's principle, the strong form of the equations of motion is established. Seeking for an explicit solution to these integro-partial differential equations is a very problematic task. Thereby, an energy-based method in conjunction with an efficient meshfree method is proposed and the nonlocal frequencies of the elastically embedded nanosystem are determined. For simply supported nanosystems, the predicted first five frequencies of the proposed model are checked with those of assumed mode method, and a reasonably good agreement is achieved. Through various studies, the roles of the tube's length ratio, intertube free space, mislocation, small-scale effect, slenderness ratio, radius of SWCNTs, and elastic constants of the elastic matrix on the natural frequencies of the nanosystem with various end conditions are explained. The limitations of the nonlocal Timoshenko beam theory are also addressed. This work can be considered as a vital step towards better realizing of a more complex system that consists of vertically aligned SWCNTs of various lengths.     

Non-linear dynamic behaviour of plates on elastic foundations

The large amplitude transverse vibration characteristics of a simply-supported isotropic equilateral triangular plate on elastic foundation have been investigated by following Berger's well-known approximate method in conjunction with a special type of co-ordinates known as tri-linear co-ordinates. A second order non-linear differential equation for the unknown time function has been obtained and solved, as usual, in terms of Jacobian elliptic functions. Results obtained from numerical calculations are presented graphically.     

Dynamic analysis of flexible linkage mechanisms under uniform temperature change

Deformation and stresses are produced not by mechanical forces alone, but by temperature variation as well. The additional stresses of a flexible mechanism caused by the temperature change should not be ignored. The generalized equations of motion for flexible linkage mechanisms, in which the thermal effects are taken into account, are developed by utilizing the virtual work method and the finite element theory in this paper. Since the determination of thermal stresses plays an important role in the design of mechanisms operating at elevated temperatures, the stress–strain relationship should include the effects of temperature. Based on the closed-form numerical algorithm, the equations are solved and the recursive scheme is proved to be efficient and converged in a few iterations for the cases examined. The Runge–Kutta method is also applied to study the transient response of the temperature change. Numerical solution results show that a small change of temperature will cause a significant change of the stresses of a flexible mechanism. The effects of temperature change should not be ignored when analyzing the dynamic performance of flexible mechanisms.     

Nucleon-nucleon dynamics at medium energies: (I). Unitary model for elastic and inelastic scattering

A framework is presented for a unified theory of elastic nucleon-nucleon scattering and single-pion production at medium energies. The model is relativistic, unitary, and takes into account all spin complications. In the simplest version of the theory the driving mechanism is one-pion exchange but the model can be extended to include short-range forces. The resulting set of coupled linear integral equations have the structure of three-body equations and can be solved exactly. The method of solution is discussed.     

Free vibration and buckling analysis of clamped skew sandwich plates by the Galerkin method

Galerkin's variational method has been used in the past by several investigators [1–3] to solve bending problems of clamped skew plates. In this paper the suitability of the Galerkin method for solution of problems of buckling under the action of in-plane forces and of free vibration of skew plates is studied. The method is first applied to investigate the problems for clamped rectangular sandwich plates. After the validity of the method has been established, the method is then extended to analyze similar problems for clamped skew sandwich plates. The governing differential equations for the skew sandwich plates are obtained by transforming the corresponding differential equations in Cartesian coordinates into skew co-ordinates. The parameters considered herein for the buckling and free vibration behaviour of the skew sandwich plates are the aspect ratio of the plate, Poisson's ratio, skew angle and various shearing stiffnesses of the core. Simplicity and quick convergence is the advantage of the method in comparison with other much more laborious numerical methods requiring extensive computer facilities.     

Stability and free vibration analyses of cantilever shear buildings with semi-rigid support conditions and multiple masses

The stability and free vibration analyses of a cantilever shear building with generalized support conditions and with multiple masses (rotational and translational) rigidly attached at both ends and along its height are presented. The proposed model includes the simultaneous effects of: (1) lateral and rotational elastic restraints at the base support; (2) a uniform distributed mass and rotary inertia plus lumped rotary and translational masses rigidly attached at both extremes and along its height; (3) linearly distributed axial load plus the concentrated vertical axial loads caused by the lumped masses; and (4) shear deformations and shear forces induced by the applied axial forces. A parametric study is carried out that shows the importance of all variables included in this work on the stability and dynamic behavior of cantilever shear buildings, particularly the effects of the attached lumped masses and the rotational and translational constraints at the base support. A comparison with results presented by other researchers in previous studies shows that the proposed method and corresponding equations can be very useful in the assessment design of cantilever shear buildings. The main objective is to present readily solutions on the static stability and free vibration of cantilever shear buildings with generalized support conditions and multiple masses rigidly attached. The proposed method and corresponding expressions for the natural frequencies and modal shapes, buckling modes and axial critical loads are extensions of those presented recently by the senior author.     

Dynamic stability of plane elastic frames

The stability of plane elastic frames subjected to a vertical foundation motion of the stationary, ergodic type is investigated. The equations of motion are obtained in modal co-ordinates, with account taken of many modes of vibration. The problem is subsequently reduced to the study of only the first mode of vibration. By considering a particular case, the stability domains are sketched as functions of the variation of the rigidities of the beam-column connecting joints and as functions of the number of stories.     

Development of elastic force model for wheel/rail contact problems

In this investigation, a new formulation for the wheel/rail contact problem based on the elastic force approach is presented. Crucial to the success of any elastic force formulation for the wheel/rail contact problem is the accurate prediction of the location of the contact points. To this end, features of multibody formulations that allow introducing additional differential equations are exploited in this investigation in order to obtain a good estimate of the rail arc length travelled by the wheel set. In the formulation presented in this paper, four parameters are used to describe the wheel and the rail surfaces. In order to determine the location of the points of contact between the wheel and the rail, a first order differential equation for the rail arc length is introduced and is integrated simultaneously with the multibody equations of motion of the wheel/rail system. The method presented in this paper allows for multiple points of contact between the wheel and the rail by using an optimized search for all possible contact points. The normal contact forces are calculated and used with non-linear expressions for the creepages to determine the creep forces. The paper also discusses two different procedures for the analysis of the two-point contact in the wheel/rail interaction. Numerical results obtained using the elastic force model are presented and compared with the results obtained using the constraint approach.     

Elastic response of an orthogonally reinforced plate

This paper develops a three-dimensional fully elastic analytical model of a solid plate that has two sets of embedded, equally spaced stiffeners that are orthogonal to each other. The dynamics of the solid plate are based on the Navier–Cauchy equations of motion of an elastic body. This equation is solved with unknown wave propagation coefficients at two locations, one solution for the volume above the stiffeners and the second solution for the volume below the stiffeners. The forces that the stiffeners exert on the solid body are derived using beam and bar equations of motion. Stress and continuity equations are then written at the boundaries and these include the stiffener forces acting on the solid. A two-dimensional orthognalization procedure is developed and this produces an infinite number of double indexed algebraic equations. These are all written together as a global system matrix. This matrix can be truncated and solved resulting in a solution to the wave propagation coefficients which allows the systems displacements to be determined. The model is verified by comparison to thin plate theory and finite element analysis. An example problem is formulated. Convergence of the series solution is discussed. The frequency limitations of the model are examined.     

APPROXIMATE ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR PRIMARY CHATTER IN THE NON-LINEAR METAL CUTTING MODEL

This paper considers an accepted model of the metal cutting process dynamics in the context of an approximate analysis of the resulting non-linear differential equations of motion. The process model is based upon the established mechanics of orthogonal cutting and results in a pair of non-linear ordinary differential equations which are then restated in a form suitable for approximate analytical solution. The chosen solution technique is the perturbation method of multiple time scales and approximate closed-form solutions are generated for the most important non-resonant case. Numerical data are then substituted into the analytical solutions and key results are obtained and presented. Some comparisons between the exact numerical calculations for the forces involved and their reduced and simplified analytical counterparts are given. It is shown that there is almost no discernible difference between the two thus confirming the validity of the excitation functions adopted in the analysis for the data sets used, these being chosen to represent a real orthogonal cutting process. In an attempt to provide guidance for the selection of technological parameters for the avoidance of primary chatter, this paper determines for the first time the stability regions in terms of the depth of cut and the cutting speed co-ordinates.     

A comparison of shell theories for large-amplitude vibrations of circular cylindrical shells: Lagrangian approach

Large-amplitude (geometrically non-linear) vibrations of circular cylindrical shells subjected to radial harmonic excitation in the spectral neighbourhood of the lowest resonances are investigated. The Lagrange equations of motion are obtained by an energy approach, retaining damping through Rayleigh's dissipation function. Four different non-linear thin shell theories, namely Donnell's, Sanders-Koiter, Flügge-Lur’e-Byrne and Novozhilov's theories, which neglect rotary inertia and shear deformation, are used to calculate the elastic strain energy. The formulation is also valid for orthotropic and symmetric cross-ply laminated composite shells. The large-amplitude response of perfect and imperfect, simply supported circular cylindrical shells to harmonic excitation in the spectral neighbourhood of the lowest natural frequency is computed for all these shell theories. Numerical responses obtained by using these four non-linear shell theories are also compared to results obtained by using the Donnell's non-linear shallow-shell equation of motion. A validation of calculations by comparison with experimental results is also performed. Both empty and fluid-filled shells are investigated by using a potential fluid model. The effects of radial pressure and axial load are also studied. Boundary conditions for simply supported shells are exactly satisfied. Different expansions involving from 14 to 48 generalized co-ordinates, associated with natural modes of simply supported shells, are used. The non-linear equations of motion are studied by using a code based on an arclength continuation method allowing bifurcation analysis.