Time-stepping for three-dimensional rigid body dynamics (Q1972928)

The impulsive forces resulting in the rigid body dynamics with elastic or inelastic contacts are treated via the time-stepping method using integrals of forces over the used time-steps (during contact not just at the instant of impact). The authors show that the solution of the formulated ``complementarity problem'' always exists in the sense of measure-differential inclusions. A number of time-stepping methods is presented and critically discussed. The model can be modified to handle also equality constraints (joints).