| Multibody dynamics is an increasingly popular area of research as a large variety of physical systems, ranging from biosystems to mechanisms to flexible structures are being modeled as multibody systems. The efficient formulation of equations of motion for multibody system is receiving ever greater attention and growing more and more important in the accurate prediction of mechanical system behavior.; This dissertation presents an exhaustive evaluation of classical methods and techniques used as a basis for multi-body system equation formulation and the development of a new formalism for generation of symbolic equations of motion of constrained hybrid multibody systems. Methods of equation formulation and order reduction were explored in the context of which methods are more efficient than others and lend themselves to implementation for symbolic model generation. Characteristics of system configuration, relationship between system equations, generalized coordinates, and constraints/constraint forces etc. were also explored. Based on this, a new, powerful, and efficient formalism is proposed. This formalism generates order reduced equations of motion of rigid formulation, generalized coordinates transformation, constraint force determination, and flexible body assumed mode formulations. A computer program implementing the formalism in MAPLE is also included.; Numerous examples demonstrating the feasibility of the new formalism are presented. These include applications of the formalism to mechanisms, railway vehicles, and impact problems. |
