Conceptual design decision support of a mechatronic system using analytical approach with Modelica

Abstract

During conceptual design phase, system architects pre-validate architectures following different constrains. This paper proposes a new pre-designing method applied to a flexible multibody system to characterize its vibrational behavior analytically with Dymola/Modelica language. We study the vibration interaction between perturbations sources (motors) and receivers (electronic cards) through a flexible beam with arbitrary boundary conditions. In fact, a lot of mechatronic systems may have their natural frequencies and mode shapes dependent on their spatial configuration, which affect the dynamic response of the system. This methodology shows that using Modelica, we can implement different boundary conditions, making the element suitable for any multibody simulation. This model can help system architects to study the influence of the boundary conditions on the system response. Two types of boundary conditions are considered in this study, simply supported–simply supported (S-S) and clamped–clamped (C-C). The solution for this issue would be a pre-positioning procedure which targets to provide a support for decision-making on the feasibility of a given system architecture at an early design stage, before proceeding to the detailed design. The simulation results have been validated with respect to the literature and by a comparison with those obtained by the model based on the Beam component which belongs to the Modelica flexible Bodies Library.