The befenits of parallel multibody simulation and its application to vehicle dynamics

Abstract:
In summer 1987 most of the multibody dynamics community met at the JPL, Pasadena, to discuss the needs and the open problems in multibody system simulation, especially for space applications. P. W. Likins stated in his survey [16]: “Computational questions focused initially on the selection of subroutines for numerical integration, matrix inversion, or eigensystem analysis,and lately have shifted to preprocessors and postprocessors for user convenience. More fundamental issues are raised by the potential of symbolic manipulation and parallel processing, both of which present the possibility of revolutionizing the field.” Concepts for symbolic implementation have been pursued at various places, e.g. [14, 21]. This paper presents results of our efforts to exploit the potential of parallel computer architectures for multibody simulation. It has its roots in an analysis of the status of knowledge at the time, the above statement was made.