A novel co-simulation approach for mechanical systems

Co-simulation techniques are widely used to enable global simulation of a coupled system via composition of simulators. Herein, a novel co-simulation approach is developed and presented for mechanical systems, where the focus is placed on the proper decomposition of the initial system into two (or more) subsystems. Moreover, the master/orchestrator is treated as a separate dynamical subsystem. The essential ideas of the new method are initially introduced by employing a simple linear model of two masses, constrained with a fixed joint. Subsequently, a model of a two-degree-of-freedom oscillator, including Duffing-type nonlinearities, is also investigated. The method of multiple time scales is applied first in order to capture its dynamics in an analytic way. Finally, a simplified vehicle–bridge interaction problem is solved using an external, open-source finite element code for the bridge model. Even though the mechanical models examined are simple, the developed methods have general validity and can be applied for coupling arbitrary multibody or structural solvers.