An effective strategy for the multibody simulation of jointed FE models

The floating frame of reference formulation (FFRF) is a widely used approach in order to represent an elastic flexible body in multibody systems (MBS). In the latter approach structural deformation is usually computed by the superposition of time invariant deformation shape vectors (commonly called ‘modes’). However, in the literature discussed mode bases do not take joints into special account at the stage of mode generation. In the presented paper we propose a problem-oriented extension of classical mode bases in order to consider the presence of joints. In the novel extension which we call ‘Joint Interface Modes’ (JIMs), Newton’s 3rd law across the joint is taken into account at the stage of mode generation, which leads to a superior convergence at the stage of mode based computation