Investigations into the dynamics of a system of rigid bodies require the formulation of nonlinear equations of motion, of energy expressions, kinematic relationships, and other quantities. It is common practice to develop these for each system separately and to consider the labor necessary for deriving e.g., equations of motion from Lagrange`s equation, as inevitable.

It is the main purpose of this book to describe in detail a formalism which substantially simplifies these tasks.

The book addresses advanced graduate students and scientists.

About the Author
Prof. Wittenburg was Professor for Mechanics at University of Karlsruhe. He is still active in research and has been invited to give lectures all over the world.

Reviews

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This is the second edition of a book published thirty years ago ... . The first edition had a success and has been used as a textbook in advanced courses of analytical mechanics. The book has six chapters. ... This book can be used by mechanical engineers, scientists and graduate students." (Irina Alexandrovna Bolgrabskaya, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1131 (9), 2008)

"This book is the second edition of the 1977 Dynamics of Systems of Rigid Bodies ... . This text is a classical and complete book on rigid multibody dynamics. ... The book is precise in notation and clear in presentation. ... this classical textbook in multibody dynamics is an excellent reference, containing valuable material for graduate students and researchers. ... I believe that the book can easily be used as a text for a graduate course on the dynamics of rigid multibody systems." (Arend L. Schwab, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, October, 2008)

Book Information
ISBN 9783642093142
Author Jens Wittenburg
Format Paperback
Page Count 223
Imprint Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
Publisher Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG