Topic: Development of Model Order Reduction Techniques for Flexible Multibody

Simulations
Faculy: Salil S. Kulkarni
Most practical engineering problems such as flexible multibody dynamics, vibration and
acoustic systems, molecular dynamics, microelectromechanical systems(MEMS) are complex
in nature which involve complicated domains, loads and nonlinearities. The finite element
method (FEM) is probably the most popular numerical technique used for solving such
complicated problems because of its versatile nature. The general approach in FEM is to
discretize the domain into finite elements and by using appropriate approximations, the
governing partial differential equation is converted into algebraic form (in the case of static
problems) or ordinary differential equations (in the case of dynamic problems), to get the
solution of the problem. The dynamic analysis of such complex problems increases the
computational cost which in turn increases the overall design cost. The main objective of
model order reduction is to reduce the computational cost of the solution by constructing low
dimensional approximations which do not lead to significant loss in accuracy and yet,
preserve the essential properties of the original complex model.
The current project deals with developing reduced order models for carrying flexible multibody
simulations. A typical example of a multi-body is the slider crank mechanism shown below:

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multibody_system
These reduced order models will be particularly be useful in the filed of robotics where they
can not only be used for design and analysis but also be coupled with the control system.
The project will be analytical and computational in nature. For additional details, you can meet
me (Room ME320, Mechanical Engineering Building, IIT-Bombay) or send me an email:
salil.kulkarni@iitb.ac.in