Development of a co-simulation framework for flexible multibody and discrete element models.

In various applications mechanisms need to interact with various functional loads. Particle loads in particular are encountered in agricultural, pharmaceutical, etc applications. However current simulation frameworks for multibody simulation commonly require a strongly simplified assumption of these loads, which severely restricts the possibility to accurately evaluate the behavior of the mechanism or the particle load. In order to resolve this issue, a novel framework will be developed in this research which focusses on the efficient coupling of flexible multibody models for the mechanism, and discrete element models for the particle loads.