Interface reduction in flexible multibody systems

The problem of imposing the reference conditions in a floating frame of reference formulation is coupled with the necessity to reduce the interfaces to virtual nodes required to define the multibody joints. Two methods are implemented for rigid and interpolation multipoint constraints, and the reference condition matrix is derived employing all the interface dofs. The case study of a slider-crank mechanism is discussed to show how different sets of reference conditions can modify the system’s dynamics.