Instead of using the previous straight beam element to approximate the curved beam,in this paper,a curvilinear coordinate is employed to describe the deformations,and a new curved beam element is proposed to model the curved beam.Based on exact nonlinear strain-displacement relation,virtual work principle is used to derive dynamic equations for a rotating curved beam,with the effects of axial extensibility,shear deformation and rotary inertia taken into account.The constant matrices are solved numerically utilizing the Gauss quadrature integration method.Newmark and Newton-Raphson iteration methods are adopted to solve the differential equations of the rigid-flexible coupling system.The present results are compared with those obtained by commercial programs to validate the present finite method.In order to further illustrate the convergence and efficiency characteristics of the present modeling and computation formulation,comparison of the results of the present formulation with those of the ADAMS software are made.Furthermore,the present results obtained from linear formulation are compared with those from nonlinear formulation,and the special dynamic characteristics of the curved beam are concluded by comparison with those of the straight beam.
The objective of this investigation is to examine the correctness and efficiency of the choice of boundary conditions when using assumed mode approach to simulate flexible multi-body systems. The displacement field due to deformation is approximated by the Rayleigh-Ritz assumed modes in floating frame of reference （FFR） formulation. The deformations obtained by the absolute nodal coordinate （ANC） formulation which are transformed by two sets of reference coordinates are introduced as a criterion to verify the accuracy of the simulation results by using the FFR formulation. The relationship between the deformations obtained from different boundary conditions is revealed. Nu- merical simulation examples demonstrate that the assumed modes with cantilevered-free, simply-supported and free- free boundary conditions without inclusion of rigid body modes are suitable for simulation of flexible multi-body system with large over all motion, and the same physical deformation can be obtained using those mode functions, differ only by a coordinate transformation. It is also shown that when using mode shapes with statically indeterminate boundary conditions, significant error may occur. Furthermore, the slider crank mechanism with rigid crank is accurate enough for investigating boundary condition problem of flexible multi-body system, which cost significant less simulating time.
