Abstract
The purpose of this study is to derive the formulation for buckling analysis of mechanical linkages. Flexible multibody structures are constructed by structural elements (such as beams and cables) and mechanical linkages. Numerical analysis for flexible multibody structures is required to solve geometric non-linearity in large displacements and/or rotations caused by a deployment motion. For this purpose, a flexible multibody dynamics formula based on the corotational formulated finite element method and the direct coordinate partitioning (DCP) has been proposed. However, buckling analysis for flexible multibody structures has not been accomplished because the DCP's geometric stiffness has not been defined. In this paper, we formulate the DCP's geometric stiffness and show the numerical examination of joint buckling. The buckling load calculated by numerical examination shows good agreement with theoretical one.
