On the definition of the natural frequency of oscillations in nonlinear large rotation problems

Computational multibody system algorithms allow for performing eigenvalue analysis at different time points during the simulation to study the system stability. The nonlinear equations of motion are linearized at these time points, and the resulting linear equations are used to determine the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the system. In the case of linear systems, the system eigenvalues remain the same under a constant coordinate transformation; and zero eigenvalues are always associated with rigid body modes, while nonzero eigenvalues are associated with non-rigid body motion. These results, however, cannot in general be applied to nonlinear multibody systems as demonstrated in this paper. Different sets of large rotation parameters lead to different forms of the nonlinear and linearized equations of motion, making it necessary to have a correct interpretation of the obtained eigenvalue solution. As shown in this investigation, the frequencies associated with different sets of orientation parameters can differ significantly, and rigid body motion can be associated with non-zero oscillation frequencies, depending on the coordinates used. In order to demonstrate this fact, the multibody system motion equations associated with the system degrees of freedom are presented and linearized. The resulting linear equations are used to define an eigevalue problem using the state space representation in order to account for general damping that characterizes multibody system applications. In order to demonstrate the significant differences between the eigenvalue solutions associated with two different sets of orientation parameters, a simple rotating disk example is considered in this study. The equations of motion of this simple example are formulated using Euler angles, Euler parameters and Rodriguez parameters. The results presented in this study demonstrate that the frequencies obtained using computational multibody system algorithms should not in general be interpreted as the system natural frequencies, but as the frequencies of the oscillations of the coordinates used to describe the motion of the system.