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International Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineering

ISSN for PRINT: 1543-1649

Institutional price:	$747.00
Issues per year:	6

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2003, Volume1

187 pages

DOI: 10.1615/IntJMultCompEng.v1.i23

Issue price - $356.00

A Robust Simulation Algorithm for Conservative Linear Mechanical Systems

Khalid Al-Widyan
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Jorge Angeles
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Svetlana Ostrovskaya
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

ABSTRACT

Proposed in this article is an inherently conservative simulation scheme, based on the zero-order hold and a closed-form time response of the system at hand. It is shown that the simulation algorithm can be cast in a form in which the state-transition matrix, mapping a state at instant t_k into a state at instant t_k+1, is proper orthogonal. Hence, for an n-degree-of-freedom (dof) system, this matrix represents a rotation in the 2n-dimensional space of state variables. As a result, the numerical damping required in the simulation of undamped systems is obviated. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated with two examples drawn from engineering systems.