A modified Lagrangian formulation for the dynamic analysis of constrained mechanical systems (Q1116722)

A modified Lagrangian formulation is presented for the dynamic analysis of constraint mechanisms. The proposed method is based on a Hamiltonian description of the dynamics which leads to the Lagrange's equations. However, the constraint conditions are not appended to the Lagrange's equations in the form of algebraic or differential constraints, but instead inserted in them by means of a penalty formulation, and therefore the number of equations of the system does not increase. In addition, this approach directly leads to a system of ordinary differential equations, as opposed to the classical Lagrange's formulation which results in differential algebraic equations. The resulting set of equations is of the form \(\dot y=g(y,t)\), which can be integrated by standard numerical algorithms. Finally, the proposed method is very systematic and general, and can model any type of constraint conditions, either holonomic or nonholonomic. A series of illustrative examples are analyzed. The results demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed method for simulation analysis.