Using Adequate Reduced Models for Flexible Multibody Systems of Automotive Mechatronic Systems

Multibody models of mechatronic systems are usually interdisciplinary and are continuously gaining complexity, due to a growing demand for comprehensive models of systems including effects of electro mechanics, elastic bodies, contacts and friction. To be capable of simulating large models with subassemblies and contact between bodies, reduction techniques are required, which need certain experience in the choice of parameters. This publication discusses different possibilities for the modal description of structures in flexible multibody models with application to an Adaptive Frontlighting System in ADAMS. It will be shown that mode count, assembling of structures before and after modal reduction and influence of damping parameters of particular structures and subassemblies affect the behavior of the entire system. A common reduction technique for flexible structures in multibody models is the component mode synthesis, which uses a certain number of modes for description of the modal behavior of a structure. The influence of the mode count will be shown by means of different modal descriptions of one structure that contributes to a comprehensive model. Another study will prove that modal data of subassemblies and assemblies of modal reduced single structures lead to different models. The definition of damping parameters depends on the number of structures that have been added to an assembly before modal reduction and on the number of modal reduced structures. The comparison of subassemblies and the entire model to experimental data will highlight the accuracy, computational overhead, complexity of models and modeling efficiency of the comprehensive model for the frontlighting system.