Hierarchical modeling in multibody dynamics

Summary In this paper a hierarchical approach using several mechanical models with different complexities and modeling depths to describe a single engineering system is presented. The mechanical models are derived from (but not limited to) multibody dynamics. The computer power available and improvements in theoretical understanding allow today not only to perform analyses but also to attack the problem of multimodel synthesis. Therefore, hierarchical modeling is used as a basis to analyze simultaneously models with different complexities and different excitations, and to optimize the performance with the most appropriate model for an investigated mechanical effect. Since only one single engineering system is investigated, its different models must be coupled by shared parameters, and the different criteria have to be combined with multicriteria optimization algorithms in order to obtain a single feasible design. An example taken from vehicle dynamics demonstrates the application of the approach. Received 14 January 1997; accepted for publication 11 September 1997