Improving the Fidelity of General Flexible Multibody Dynamic Simulations

Currently, NASA’s flexible multibody simulations are too simplistic for tasks such as design and validation of complex, high-speed systems. This is a known issue, as NASA TABS element 11.3 states current simulations are based on “heuristics and similitude and are often insufficient to meet NASA’s increasingly aggressive mission demands.” Further evidence can be found in NASA TABS 4 and 9, which require higher-fidelity flexible multibody simulation for their successful completion. This proposal seeks to address this need with a general purpose flexible multibody simulation toolset. NASA JPL’s DARTS (dynamic algorithms for real-time simulation) laboratory’s simulation paradigm is identified as an excellent candidate to become such a toolset due to the efficient spatial operator algebra that underlies the dynamics computation. Moreover, the simulation paradigm formulates multibody dynamics problems in a general way, so a variety of systems can be analyzed with it. Unfortunately, the simulation paradigm’s flexible dynamics are formulated using a ruthless linearization approach that neglects some important non-linear effects necessary to simulate complex, high-speed systems accurately. Hence, the goal of this study is to add those non-linear effects into the flexible body dynamics of the DARTS laboratory’s simulation paradigm. In addition, the study will analyze research questions that pertain to when these layers of fidelity are needed and when they can be neglected. Doing so will create a toolset capable of simulating general, flexible multibody systems with multiple levels of fidelity. This toolset will address the problem stated in TABS element 11.3 and can be used to tackle some of the simulation needs outlined in TABS 4 and 9. Furthermore, it will be useful for the design and validation of systems that are currently too complex to simulate accurately, such as large, extraterrestrial rotorcraft systems. The current TRL level of this research is estimated to be TRL level 3.

Currently, NASA’s flexible multibody simulations are too simplistic for tasks such as design and validation of complex, high-speed systems. This is a known issue, as NASA TABS element 11.3 states current simulations are based on “heuristics and similitude and are often insufficient to meet NASA’s increasingly aggressive mission demands.” Further evidence can be found in NASA TABS 4 and 9, which require higher-fidelity flexible multibody simulation for their successful completion.

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