J. Mayo

Efficient Evaluation of the Elastic Forces and the Jacobian in the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation

This paper develops a new procedure for evaluating the elastic forces, the elastic energy and the jacobian of the elastic forces in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. For this procedure, it is fundamental to use some invariant sparse matrices that are integrated in advance and have the property of transforming the evaluation of the elastic forces in a matrix multiplication process. The use of the invariant matrices avoids the integration over the volume of the element for every evaluation of the elastic forces. Great advantages can be achieved from these invariant matrices when evaluating the elastic energy and calculating the jacobian of the elastic forces as well. The exact expression of the jacobian of the differential system of equations of motion is obtained, and some advantages of using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation are pointed out. Numerical results show that there is important time saving as a result of the use of the invariant matrices.

Geometrically Nonlinear Formulations of Beams in Flexible Multibody Dynamics

In this paper, the equations of motion of flexible multibody systems are derived using a nonlinear formulation which retains the second-order terms in the strain-displacement relationship. The strain energy function used in this investigation leads to the definition of three stiffness matrices and a vector of nonlinear elastic forces. The first matrix is the constant conventional stiffness matrix, the second one is the first-order geometric stiffness matrix ; and the third is a second-order stiffness matrix. It is demonstrated in this investigation that accurate representation of the axial displacement due to the foreshortening effect requires the use of large number or special axial shape functions if the nonlinear stiffness matrices are used. An alternative solution to this problem, however, is to write the equations of motion in terms of the axial coordinate along the deformed (instead of undeformed) axis. The use of this representation yields a constant stiffness matrix even if higher order terms are retained in the strain energy expression. The numerical results presented in this paper demonstrate that the proposed new approach is nearly as computationally efficient as the linear formulation. Furthermore, the proposed formulation takes into consideration the effect of all the geometric elastic nonlinearities on the bending displacement without the need to include high frequency axial modes of vibration.

Geometrically non-linear formulation of flexible multibody systems in terms of beam elements: Geometric stiffness

The occurrence of strong deflections and major axial forces in many applications involving flexible multibodies entails including non-linear terms coupling deformation-induced axial and transverse displacements in the motion equation. The formulations, including such terms, are known as geometrically non-linear formulations. The authors have developed one such formulation that preserves higher-order terms in the strain energy function. By expressing such terms as a function of selected elastic coordinates, three stiffness matrices and two non-linear vectors of elastic forces are defined. The first matrix is the conventional constant-stiffness matrix, the second is the classical geometric stiffness matrix and the third is a second-order geometric stiffness matrix. The aim of this work is to define the third matrix and the two non-linear vectors of elastic forces by using the finite-element method.

A Finite Element Geometrically Nonlinear Dynamic Formulation of Flexible Multibody Systems Using a New Displacements Representation

In previous work (Mayo, 1993), the authors developed two geometrically nonlinear formulations of beams inflexible multibody systems. One, like most related methods, includes geometric elastic nonlinearity in the motion equations via the stiffness terms (Mayo and Dominguez, 1995), but preserving terms, in the expression for the strain energy, of a higher-order than most available formulations. The other formulation relies on distinguishing the contribution of the foreshortening effect from that of strain in modelling the displacement of a point. While including exactly the same nonlinear terms in the expression for the strain energy, the stiffness terms in the motion equations generated by this formulation are exclusively limited to the constant stiffness matrix for the linear analysis because the terms arising from geometric elastic nonlinearity are moved from elastic forces to inertial, reactive and external forces, which are originally nonlinear. This formulation was reported in a previous paper (Mayo et al, 1995) and used in conjunction with the assumed-modes method. The aim of the present work is to implement this second formulation on the basis of the finite-element method. If, in addition, the component mode synthesis method is applied to reduce the number of degrees of freedom, the proposed formulation takes account of the effect of geometric elastic nonlinearity on the transverse displacements occurring during bending without the need to include any axial vibration modes. This makes the formulation particularly efficient in computational terms and numerically more stable than alternative geometrically nonlinear formulations based on lower-order terms.

A study of the temporomandibular joint during bruxism

A finite element model of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and the human mandible was fabricated to study the effect of abnormal loading, such as awake and asleep bruxism, on the articular disc. A quasilinear viscoelastic model was used to simulate the behaviour of the disc. The viscoelastic nature of this tissue is shown to be an important factor when sustained (awake bruxism) or cyclic loading (sleep bruxism) is simulated. From the comparison of the two types of bruxism, it was seen that sustained clenching is the most detrimental activity for the TMJ disc, producing an overload that could lead to severe damage of this tissue.

Dynamic Analysis of a Light Structure in Outer Space: Short Electrodynamic Tether

The SET (short electrodynamic tether) is an extremely flexible deployable structure. Unlike most other tethers that orbit with their axis of smallest moment of inertia pointing towards the Earths center (natural position), the SET must orbit with its axis of smallest inertia normal to the orbit plane. The Faraday effect allows the SET to modify its orbit in this position. This is due to the interaction of the Earths magnetic field with the tether, which is an electric conductor. In order to maintain the aforementioned operating position, the SET is subjected to a spin velocity around its axis of smallest inertia. If the system were rigid, the generated gyroscopic pairs would guarantee the systems stability.The tether is not perfectly straight after deployment. This fact could make the rotation of the structure unstable. The problem is similar to the instability of unbalanced rotors. The linear study of unbalanced systems predicts the structural instability once a certain critical velocity is exceeded. Instability is due to internal damping forces. The spin velocity of the SET is greater than the critical velocity. Nevertheless, certain works that include the geometric nonlinearities show a stable behavior under such conditions. The object of this paper is to try to verify these results for the SET.The SET consists of a 100-meter tether with a concentrated mass at its end. The system has been modeled using the floating reference frame approach with natural coordinates. The substructuring technique is used to include nonlinearities in the system.

Finite element analysis of the human mastication cycle

The aim of this paper is to propose a biomechanical model that could serve as a tool to overcome some difficulties encountered in experimental studies of the mandible. One of these difficulties is the inaccessibility of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and the lateral pterygoid muscle. The focus of this model is to study the stresses in the joint and the influence of the lateral pterygoid muscle on the mandible movement. A finite element model of the mandible, including the TMJ, was built to simulate the process of unilateral mastication. Different activation patterns of the left and right pterygoid muscles were tried. The maximum stresses in the articular disc and in the whole mandible during a complete mastication cycle were reached during the instant of centric occlusion. The simulations show a great influence of the coordination of the right and left lateral pterygoid muscles on the movement of the jaw during mastication. An asynchronous activation of the lateral pterygoid muscles is needed to achieve a normal movement of the jaw during mastication.

A new numerical method for the dynamic analysis of impact loads in flexible beams

Abstract The aim of this investigation is to compare the classical St. Venant’s solution of the axial impact on flexible rods with the numerical result obtained using a finite element computational procedure involving component mode synthesis, using a new technique developed to simulate impacts. The impacts treated are those mainly governed by the propagation of elastic waves along the complete flexible body. Local effects at the vicinity of the contact surfaces are neglected. The phenomenon of succession of impacts is analytically proved finding a second period of contact in a particular case. A numerical method is developed to solve the collision based on the theoretical solution. This technique is able to identify the elastic waves which travel along the rod and a force balance is continuously made to yield the contact stress and the velocity of the surfaces in contact. Numerical solution shows an excellent agreement between the numerically obtained displacements histories with the theoretical results. The capability of the eigenvectors to describe the wave propagation is analysed as well as the effect of the elements boundaries.

Numerical simulation of a relaxation test designed to fit a quasi-linear viscoelastic model for temporomandibular joint discs

The main objectives of this work are: (a) to introduce an algorithm for adjusting the quasi-linear viscoelastic model to fit a material using a stress relaxation test and (b) to validate a protocol for performing such tests in temporomandibular joint discs. This algorithm is intended for fitting the Prony series coefficients and the hyperelastic constants of the quasi-linear viscoelastic model by considering that the relaxation test is performed with an initial ramp loading at a certain rate. This algorithm was validated before being applied to achieve the second objective. Generally, the complete three-dimensional formulation of the quasi-linear viscoelastic model is very complex. Therefore, it is necessary to design an experimental test to ensure a simple stress state, such as uniaxial compression to facilitate obtaining the viscoelastic properties. This work provides some recommendations about the experimental setup, which are important to follow, as an inadequate setup could produce a stress state far from uniaxial, thus, distorting the material constants determined from the experiment. The test considered is a stress relaxation test using unconfined compression performed in cylindrical specimens extracted from temporomandibular joint discs. To validate the experimental protocol, the test was numerically simulated using finite-element modelling. The disc was arbitrarily assigned a set of quasi-linear viscoelastic constants (c1) in the finite-element model. Another set of constants (c2) was obtained by fitting the results of the simulated test with the proposed algorithm. The deviation of constants c2 from constants c1 measures how far the stresses are from the uniaxial state. The effects of the following features of the experimental setup on this deviation have been analysed: (a) the friction coefficient between the compression plates and the specimen (which should be as low as possible); (b) the portion of the specimen glued to the compression plates (smaller areas glued are better); and (c) the variation in the thickness of the specimen. The specimen’s faces should be parallel to ensure a uniaxial stress state. However, this is not possible in real specimens, and a criterion must be defined to accept the specimen in terms of the specimen’s thickness variation and the deviation of the fitted constants arising from such a variation.

Reference motion in deformable bodies under rigid body motion and vibration. Part I: theory

Abstract This paper examines the motions of reference systems linked to deformable bodies under simultaneously vibration and large translations and rotations. These motions depend on the particular type of linkage between the moving reference system and the deformable body, which is defined by the so-called reference conditions . When using the Rayleigh–Ritz method, the reference conditions also dictate the boundary conditions to be fulfilled by the shape functions used to describe the bodys elasticity. This paper analyses three different types of reference conditions, namely: free linkage, rigid linkage and two-point linkage. It is shown that, moving reference frames only evolve at a constant velocity in the absence of external forces when the free linkage is used. The reference velocities for systems with a free linkage are designated rigid body equivalent velocities for the deformable body here. Such velocities can also be calculated under other types of reference conditions and are usually functions of the elastic and reference co-ordinates, and also of their derivatives. Rigid body equivalent velocities are useful for purposes such as estimating the trajectory of deformable bodies moving freely in space without the need to examine the deformations they undergo. Also, their calculation is required with a view to determining the kinematic restitution coefficient for deformable body collisions, which is dealt within Part II of this series.