Modeling and prediction of wear at revolute clearance joints in flexible multibody systems

This article proposes a numerical approach for the modeling and prediction of wear at revolute clearance joints in flexible multibody systems by integrating the procedures of wear prediction with multibody dynamics. In the approach, the flexible component is modeled based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The contact force in the clearance joint is applied using the continuous contact force model proposed by Lankanrani and Nikravesh and the friction effect is considered using the LuGre friction model. The simulation of wear is performed by an iterative wear prediction procedure based on Archard’s wear model. The radial basis function neural network technique is employed to deal with the pin-on-disc experimental data for obtaining the wear coefficient used in the wear prediction procedure at different contact conditions. The comparison of the wear predicted at the clearance joint in the rigid and flexible planar slider-crank mechanisms demonstrates that the proposed approach can be used to model and predict wear at revolute clearance joints in flexible multibody systems, and the wear result predicted is slightly reduced after taking the flexibility of components into account.