Dynamic multi-rigid-body systems with concurrent distributed contacts

Consider a system of bodies with multiple concurrent contacts. The multi-rigid-body contact problem is to predict the accelerations of the bodies and the normal and friction loads acting at the contacts. This paper presents theoretical results for the multi-rigid-body contact problem under the assumptions that one or more contacts occur over locally planar finite regions and friction forces are consistent with the maximum work inequality. We present an existence and uniqueness result for this problem under some mild assumptions on the system inputs. The application of our results to two examples is discussed.