Unilateral problems of dynamics

Summary Contact processes may be described by local discretizations, by rigid representation or by mixed methods incorporating both ideas. A rigid body approach is proposed for the dynamics of mechanical systems, achieving good results also for multiple-contact problems. Contacts in multibody systems are mainly considered, with the corresponding contact constraints varying with time, thus generating structure-variant systems. The equations of motion for dynamical systems with such unilateral behavior are discussed, solution methods and applications are presented. Received 3 March 1999; accepted for publication 5 May 1999