Modeling vibrational behaviour of non-smooth large scale dynamical systems

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Large-scale dynamical systems (LSDS) exist in every industry and in virtually every aspect of science and engineering. An LSDS consists of inter-connected sub-systems or components, transferring loads, energy and heat through interfaces, and more importantly interacting with each other through surface-to-surface frictional contact in a non-smooth manner. A mechanical system, used in manufacturing and other industries, has many components connected together by joints to complete various sophisticated tasks. During operations, each topologically complex component experiences elasto-rigid motion. As a result, a large number of degrees of freedom (DOF's) are required to describe time-varying configurations of all components with sufficient accuracy. Non-smooth LSDS can respond violently to disturbances and excitations in a deterministic or even chaotic manner, and can cause poor machine precision, excessive noise, accelerated component wear, etc. As examples of non-smooth large scale LSDS, vibration of a CANDU nuclear fuel string, excited by pulsating coolant flow, has caused severe wear damage to the pressure tube and fuel bundle component failure in the Canadian nuclear industry; a high-speed machine having flexible links and joints can lose its stability when operated near a critical speed; motion of a vibrating machine with gap-activated springs can become chaotic at certain operating points, which result in poor system performance. Study of vibration of non-smooth LSDS is of ultimate importance to both system design and maintenance engineers.