Concept, development and implementation of DAMOS-C: the object orientied approach to multibody systems

Abstract

The increasing use of computer aided design (CAD)and multibody dynamics software in engineering design and analysis requires an efficient communication management between different codes. As product cycle times are shrinking and companies are under competitive pressure, an automation of the model data exchange between CAD and multibody dynamics is urgently demanded. In this paper the concept. development and implementation of the independent, object-oriented multibody modeling kernel DAMOS-C is presented. According to the different multibody formalisms, computer codes and applications in vehicle, machine and robot dynamics a general description and organization of multibody system data is introduced. A general data model is developed to fulfill the needs of a modular simulation system based upon numerical and symbolical formalisms. With respect to existing CAD interfaces, different solid model construction methods and visualization procedures, multibody system classes and methods are implemented in the multibody modeling kernel. The extreme versatility of this modeling kernel is shown by an integration in a commercially available CAD-system and by application to a conversion tool which processes input data for different multibody software codes.