Term: Winter Term

Lecturers

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Seifried
• Dr.-Ing. Alexander Held

Motivation

The flexible multibody systems method can be used to analyze machines, robots, vehicles, and a wide variety of structures that undergo elastic deformation in addition to large nonlinear movements. This is usually the case when the component dimensions in one direction are significantly different from those in other directions, such as in beam-like structures or shell-like structures.

These elastic deformations of flexible multibody systems can often be considered small in many typical applications. Examples include modern lightweight constructions in aircraft manufacturing and robotics, machines with high speeds and precision requirements, hard disks, and wind turbines. Examples of systems with large deformations, on the other hand, include soft robots, human tissue, and tires.

The course covers the three most common modeling approaches for flexible multibody systems:

• finite segment models
• (nonlinear) finite element models
• floating frame of reference appraoch

For each modeling approach, the theoretical fundamentals are developed and then the practical implementation is illustrated using example systems. Each chapter concludes with application examples from engineering practice.