For many years, engineers have recognised the need to simulate not only components submitted to different boundary conditions, but more complex systems where different components interact with each other mechanically.

Multi Body Simulation (MBS) was developed to satisfy this need, but with the goal of simulating the kinematics of multi body systems. At the same time, the classical Finite Element method was gaining further capabilities in the simulation of complex mechanical behaviours including non-linearities, both geometrical and material.

Today, those two technologies have been evolving together: MBS has gained more capabilities to introduce flexibility and even some non-linear effects in the “kinematic” description of a mechanism, whilst FE has developed the ability to take into account contact and kinematic joints. More recently, the coupling of these two methods through co-simulation has given provided solutions to another range of problems, taking advantage of both disciplines.

This conference, organized by the NAFEMS Computational Structural Mechanics and Multi Body Dynamics Working Groups, will bring together industry, academia and software vendors in order to give the attendees a clear picture of the real capabilities of these disciplines: MBS, FE, and the co-simulation of both, through the presentation of different applications.