Report on parallel processing oriented generalized design sensitivity analysis method for multibody dynamic systems.

There are various techniques to optimize either structural parameters, or structural controllers, but there are not many techniques that can simultaneously optimize the structural parameters and controller. The advantage of integrating the structural and controller optimization problems is that structure and controller interaction is taken into account in the design process and a more efficient overall design (lower control force/lighter weight) can be achieved, and also multidisciplinary design optimization can be performed. The down side is that the combined optimization problem is more difficult to formulate and solve, and computations are increased. This volume is a comprehensive treatment of dynamic analysis and control techniques in structural dynamic systems and the wide variety of issues and techniques that fall within this broad area, including the interactions between structural control systems and structural system parameters.

A modified Adjoint method is presented, in which computation can be distributed to 2d+2 processors, where d is the number of degrees of freedom of the multibody system, and the Adjoint backward initial value problem (IVP) is replaced by a boundary value problem (BVP), which is solved through a backward multiple shooting algorithm. In the equivalent BVP formulation, each time-step is solved in the backward direction, but time-steps advance in the forward direction. As a result, the memory load for storing generalized coordinates during integration of the DAE of motion, is minimized. The specific objectives are (...) to develop a new method, called the Piecewise Adjoint method, that (1) requires the integration of a number of DAE that does not depend on the number of design parameters; (2) has a parallel computational structure; (3) progresses forward in time; and (4) minimizes the memory load required by the backward integration of the Adjoint DAE.

By having its origin in analytical and continuum mechanics, as well as in computer science and applied mathematics, multibody dynamics provides a basis for analysis and virtual prototyping of innovative applications in many fields of contemporary engineering. With the utilization of computational models and algorithms that classically belonged to different fields of applied science, multibody dynamics delivers reliable simulation platforms for diverse highly-developed industrial products such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, smart structures, biomechanical applications and nano-technologies. The chapters of this volume are based on the revised and extended versions of the selected scientific papers from amongst 255 original contributions that have been accepted to be presented within the program of the distinguished international ECCOMAS conference. It reflects state-of-the-art in the advances of multibody dynamics, providing excellent insight in the recent scientific developments in this prominent field of computational mechanics and contemporary engineering.