Potential of virtual tribomechadynamics

The presence of joints in a mechanical structure leads to various nonlinear dynamic effects. This is well known and documented from experiments. Newer model reduction methods enable an efficient consideration of nonlinear contact and friction forces in a dynamic simulation with arbitrarily shaped and finely meshed FE models. The simulation times are low even the full nonlinearity and dynamics is considered. In this work it is shown that measured nonlinear effects can be simulated with such numerical tools very well. In addition, the simulation offers possibilities for gaining insights that are difficult to achieve on the test bench. Specifically, numerical investigations are presented on the topics of mode coupling, dynamic softening due to increasing load and decreasing bolt preload, strongly varying contact forces and contact areas. It is documented that the computation times are low and the results are in excellent qualitative agreement with measurements.