Based on latest developments in the field of system reduction this enhancement in terms of analysis accuracy is possible without increasing computational effort significantly.
The software package MAMBA enhances the field of MBS Simulation with the ability to accurately model and simulate the behaviour of flexible structures containing joints. Among other benefits this results in large improvements concerning

• Fatigue life prediction of spot welded seams.
• Vibration analysis of structures with joints covering large areas.
• The modelling of joint characteristics inside MBS itself.
• The ability to simulate the dynamics of joints with nonlinear behaviour.

Despite detailed consideration of the nonlinear effects inside the joint area, MAMBA requires significant lower computational effort compared with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The modeling of flexible structures is simplified too, because joints need not to be defined explicitly.
Furthermore MAMBA is designed for easy integration into an existing simulation chain. In essential the following steps are performed:

• automatic detection of joint area (like spot welded seams or bolted joints)
• parameter file driven computation of proper trial functions (special kind of “contact modes”)
• local consideration of contact in the MBS Simulation

At present MSC Nastran is the supported FEM code and MSC Adams is the supported MBS software respectively to perform the steps mentioned above.
The employment of MAMBA in MBS simulation leads to several advantages.
Some major benefits of MAMBA are:

• MAMBA automatically detects joint areas during the preprocessing step.
• No special requirements for the FEM modeling process.
• Improved results in fatigue life prediction of spot welded seams.
• Improved results in vibration analysis of structures with joints.
• Significantly improved result accuracy in case of dynamic analyses of structures with joints.
• Investigation of the dynamically loaded joint characteristics itself (e.g. pressure, gaping).
• MAMBA is a plug-in to MSC Adams therefore the existing simulation process chain remains streamlined.