A Deformable Slider Joint for Multibody Applications

This paper presents the implementation of a deformable slider joint in the framework of a multibody simulation environment. A slider joint constrains the motion of a rigid body point along a line: a deformable slider joint allows the constrained point to move along a series of deformable beams, switching from one to the other without encountering serious numerical discontinuities. The behavior of the deformable slider is influenced both by the slider constraint and by the beam formulation, as the slider introduces a concentrated load at arbitrary points along the beam. This joint element proves to be fundamental in the study of telescopic landing gear dynamics. In fact, an application concerning the spring-back phenomena clearly demonstrates the importance of correctly modeling the strut deformability.