Proceedings of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference Multibody Dynamics 2013

To meet the challenges of the fast development of new technologies, many areas of contemporary engineering and applied sciences, which were conventionally divided or loosely coupled in the past, combine their methodologies and merge together to provide new analytical and computational tools. This is especially evident in the area of multibody system dynamics, a branch of computational mechanics dealing with modelling principles and numerical methods for dynamic analysis, simulation and control of various complex mechanical systems. Originating in analytical and continuum mechanics, as well as in computer science and applied mathematics, modelling methodologies and computational procedures of multibody system dynamics provide a basis for dynamic analysis and virtual prototyping of innovative applications in many fields of contemporary engineering. With the utilization of the computational models and algorithms that classically belonged to different fields of applied science, where in certain applications several physical models co-exist and interact within the same simulation procedure, multibody system dynamics delivers reliable simulation platforms for diverse highly-developed industrial products, such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, autonomous systems, smart structures, biomechanical applications and nano-technologies. However, since application-based modelling and successful implementation of computational methodologies raise many questions in terms of new solutions and optimal use of specific models and numerical procedures, multibody system dynamics is a very active research field. To maintain this development and provide a platform to discuss relevant scientific topics in this rapidly growing discipline, the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics was initiated in Lisbon in 2003, and continued in Madrid in 2005, Milano in 2007, Warsaw in 2009 and Brussels in 2011. Continuing this very successful series, this edition of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics is held in Zagreb, Croatia, and organized at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, from 1 to 4 July 2013