A Memory Based Communication in the Co-Simulation of Multibody and Finite Element Codes for Pantograph-Catenary Interaction Simulation

Many complex systems require that computational models of different nature are used for their sub-systems. The evaluation of the dynamics of each one of these models requires the use of different codes, which in turn use different time integration algorithms. The work presented here proposes a co-simulation environment that uses an integrated memory shared communication methodology between the multibody and finite element codes. The methodology is general being applicable to the dynamic co-simulation of models running in different codes. The benefits and drawbacks of the proposed methodology and of its accuracy and suitability are supported by the application to a real operation scenario of a high-speed catenary-pantograph system for which experimental test data is available.