By having its origin in analytical and continuum mechanics, as well as in computer science and applied mathematics, multibody dynamics provides a basis for analysis and virtual prototyping of innovative applications in many fields of contemporary engineering. With the utilization of computational models and algorithms that classically belonged to different fields of applied science, multibody dynamics delivers reliable simulation platforms for diverse highly-developed industrial products such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, smart structures, biomechanical applications and nano-technologies. The chapters of this volume are based on the revised and extended versions of the selected scientific papers from amongst 255 original contributions that have been accepted to be presented within the program of the distinguished international ECCOMAS conference. It reflects state-of-the-art in the advances of multibody dynamics, providing excellent insight in the recent scientific developments in this prominent field of computational mechanics and contemporary engineering.

This volume provides the international multibody dynamics community with an up-to-date view on the state of the art in this rapidly growing field of research which now plays a central role in the modeling, analysis, simulation and optimization of mechanical systems in a variety of fields and for a wide range of industrial applications. This book contains selected contributions delivered at the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics, which was held in Brussels, Belgium and organized by the Université catholique de Louvain, from 4th to 7th July 2011.  Each paper reflects the State-of-Art in the application of Multibody Dynamics to different areas of engineering. They are enlarged and revised versions of the communications, which were enhanced in terms of self-containment and tutorial quality by the authors. The result is a comprehensive text that constitutes a valuable reference for researchers and design engineers which helps to appraise the potential for the application of multibody dynamics methodologies to a wide range of areas of scientific and engineering relevance.

The ECCOMAS Thematic Conference “Multibody Dynamics 2009” was held in Warsaw, representing the fourth edition of a series which began in Lisbon (2003), and was then continued in Madrid (2005) and Milan (2007), held under the auspices of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). The conference provided a forum for exchanging ideas and results of several topics related to computational methods and applications in multibody dynamics, through the participation of 219 scientists from 27 countries, mostly from Europe but also from America and Asia. This book contains the revised and extended versions of invited conference papers, reporting on the state-of-the-art in the advances of computational multibody models, from the theoretical developments to practical engineering applications. By providing a helpful overview of the most active areas and the recent efforts of many prominent research groups in the field of multibody dynamics, this book can be highly valuable for both experienced researches who want to keep updated with the latest developments in this field and researches approaching the field for the first time.

This book includes selected papers from the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics, that took place in Barcelona, Spain, from June 29 to July 2, 2015. By having its origin in analytical and continuum mechanics, as well as in computer science and applied mathematics, multibody dynamics provides a basis for analysis and virtual prototyping of innovative applications in many fields of contemporary engineering. With the utilization of computational models and algorithms that classically belonged to different fields of applied science, multibody dynamics delivers reliable simulation platforms for diverse highly-developed industrial products such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, smart structures, biomechanical systems, and nanotechnologies.