Graduation Semester and Year

2015

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Alan P Bowling

Abstract

This work presents a method for understanding the impact behaviour of a flexible body undergoing multiple, simultaneous contacts. A continuous model is used with an event-driven function in MATLAB, which detects the collisions. The flexible body is defined as a system of particles, having inter-particle forces in terms of spring, damper coefficients. Equations of motion for such a Flexible MultiBody system are determined and then solved for different phases.In the method presented, the indeterminate nature of equations of motion encountered, during impact, and contact for flexible body are examined. Constraint forces are determined during the different phases of an impact to address the equations. These techniques are applied to a planar model of an elliptical body, which is dropped freely under the effect of gravity and collision occurs at the ground determined. A simulation is presented demonstrating the behaviour of the body during impact, and contact with the ground with the proposed method.

Disciplines

Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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