Modeling viscous damping for transverse oscillations in reeving systems using the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian Modal approach

Abstract

This paper contributes to a recently proposed Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian Modal (ALEM) approach that makes it possible to develop finite elements with variable volume suitable for modeling wire-ropes in reeving systems. Reeving systems often include motors that continuously modify the total mechanical energy. If mechanical energy dissipation is omitted or underestimated in the computations, the numerical solution may experience instabilities in time domain. To eliminate this problem, the main objective of this research is to introduce a simple Rayleigh based damping model into the ALEM formulation. Simulations are carried out to validate the proposed damping model formulation. They demonstrate that the dissipation added to the wire ropes stabilizes the numerical solution in the time domain, improves model efficiency, and the overall rigid-body motion is not affected.