A DAE approach to flexible multibody dynamics

The present work deals with the dynamics of multibody systems consisting of rigid bodies and beams. Nonlinear finite element methods are used to devise a frame-indifferent space discretization of the underlying geometrically exact beam theory. Both rigid bodies and semi-discrete beams are viewed as finite-dimensional dynamical systems with holonomic constraints. The equations of motion pertaining to the constrained mechanical systems under consideration take the form of Differential Algebraic Equations (DAEs). The DAEs are discretized directly by applying a Galerkin-based method. It is shown that the proposed DAE approach provides a unified framework for the integration of flexible multibody dynamics.