Numerical simulation of systems of rigid bodies

Abstract

This study investigated the various techniques available for rigid body system simulation, thus providing a thorough overview of the latest relevant literature. N became apparent that no engineering level accurate impulsive approaches for rigid body system simulation with concurrent contacts were in use or even existed up to now. A general formulation and solution technique for multiple concurrent contact problems were developed and tested on simple systems. Advantages of the formulation used are that the minimum of material properties, i.e. density, normal and tangential restitution coefficients and static and dynamic friction factors - all measurable, need to be specified and the results should be physically correct to a very high precision. Results obtained were encouraging and demonstrated that the original binary collision model available thus far could at least be extended to a heptenary simultaneous collision model.