Parameter identification of vibratory conveying systems including statistical part behavior

Abstract This work presents a complete workflow for the parameter identification of an MBS model representing a vibratory conveying system. First, the MBS model built within the multibody dynamics tool HOTINT is shown. Essential components, such as contact modeling and adaptive time step control, are explained in detail. The model includes a considerable amount of parameters that need to be identified. Altough, this model is fully deterministic, the complex contact dynamics can cause major effect on results by minor parameter variations. Thus, parameter variations usually show statistical variance, which is characteristic for real conveying processes too. For parameter identification it is important to detect parameters that significantly correlate with results. A method that allows to distinguish significant and non-significant parameters is presented. The application to the multibody system shows that stiffness, restitution and sliding friction of the contact model are the essential parameters. Next, the parameter identification is discussed with particular attention to multimodal distributions, that can occur in conveying systems. Furthermore, the integration of statistics into the deterministic simulation model is discussed. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methods, a parameter identification is performed based on measurement data of a single part on a real conveying system in the development site of STIWA Automation GmbH. Finally, the validity of the fully parametrized simulation model is shown by investigating geometric adjustments of the conveyor. In order to further verify the identified set of parameters, a conveying process with multiple parts is analyzed and compared in measurement and simulation.