2005/08/19 by Taeyoung Lee, Lee, Taeyoung, Melvin Leok +3
Engineering · Mathematics · #Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics #Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems #FOS: Mathematics #Numerical Analysis (math.NA) #Numerical methods for differential equations
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.math/0508365
openalex publication_date 2005/08/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We develop the equations of motion for full body models that describe the dynamics of rigid bodies, acting under their mutual gravity. The equations are derived using a variational approach where variations are defined on the Lie group of rigid body configurations. Both continuous equations of motion and variational integrators are developed in Lagrangian and Hamiltonian forms, and the reduction from the inertial frame to a relative coordinate system is also carried out. The Lie group variational integrators are shown to be symplectic, to preserve conserved quantities, and to guarantee exact evolution on the configuration space. One of these variational integrators is used to simulate the dynamics of two rigid dumbbell bodies.