SYMBOLIC PROGRAMMING OF A GRAPH-THEORETIC APPROACH TO FLEXIBLE MULTIBODY DYNAMICS^*

ABSTRACT

A dynamic formulation for multibody systems of rigid bodies and elastic beams has been implemented using a commercial symbolic manipulation language, Maple. The formulation is unique in that it combines linear graph theory with kinematics and the principle of virtual work. Symbolic equations in joint and elastic coordinates are automatically generated by our Maple algorithms, called DynaFlex, given only a description of the system as input. Two examples are presented to demonstrate some of the advantages offered by a computer algebra implementation of a multibody formulation.

^*Communicated by E. Zahariev.

Keywords:

• Symbolic programming
• Flexible multibody dynamics
• Graph theory
• Virtual work
• Computer algebra

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Financial support of this research by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

^*Communicated by E. Zahariev.