On the Use of the Restitution Condition in Flexible Body Dynamics

The difference between the classical treatment offlexible body impact and the treatment of impact in flexiblemultibody dynamics is due to several fundamental reasons. Inthe classical impact theory, simple structures such as beamsand plates are used. Infinite dimensional models can bedeveloped for these simple structural elements to study theimpact dynamics and the wave propagation problem. Flexiblemultibody impact problems, on the other hand, involve bodieswith complex geometry that cannot be modeled using infinitenumber of degrees of freedom. Furthermore, the classicalimpact theory has been mainly concerned with the impactbetween a rigid mass that moves without constraints beforeit impacts a simple flexible structure. This is not amultibody simulation scenario in which the impact occursbetween kinematically constrained bodies that are subjectedto impulsive constraint forces in addition to the impactforces. These constraint forces can influence the motion ofthe two bodies immediately after impact, and as aconsequence, the simple classical theory scenario of impactdoes not apply. It is the objective of this paper to discussthe use of the restitution condition in flexible multibodyimpact problems and demonstrate that the use of thisapproach does not exclude the classical formulation.Nonetheless, the impulse momentum balance approach can serveas an effective and efficient procedure for solving theimpact problem in finite dimensional models that do not obeythe classical wave theory. Energy results of simplestructural elements are presented in order to demonstratethe consistency of using the impulse momentum balanceapproach in solving impact problems in finite dimensionalflexible body applications.