A numerical scheme for impact problems

Abstract

We consider a mechanical system with impact and n degrees of freedom, written in generalized coordinates. The system is not necessarily Lagrangian. The representative point of the system must remain inside a set of constraints K; the boundary of K is three times differentiable. At impact, the tangential component of the impulsion is conserved, while its normal coordinate is reflected and multiplied by a given coefficient of restitution e between 0 and 1. The orthognality is taken with respect to the natural metric in the space of impulsions. We define a numerical scheme which enables us to approximate the solutions of the Cauchy problem: this is an ad hoc scheme which does not require a systematic search for the times of impact. We prove the convergence of this numerical scheme to a solution, which yields also an existence result. Without any a priori estimates, the convergence and the existence are local; with some a priori estimates, the convergence and the existence are proved on intervals depending exclusively on these estimates. This scheme has been implemented with a trivial and a non trivial mass matrix.