The Drazin inverse in multibody system dynamics

Summary The numerical analysis of multibody system dynamics is based on the equations of motion as differential-algebraic systems. A thorough analysis of the linearized equations and their solution theory leads to an equivalent system of ordinary differential equations which gives deeper insight into the derivation of integration schemes and into the stabilization approaches. The main tool is the Drazin inverse, a generalized matrix inverse, which preserves the eigenvalues. The results are illustrated by a realistic truck model. Finally, the approach is extended to the nonlinear index 2 formulation.