A Study on Coupled Vibration Between Flexible Body and Rigid Body in Tethered System

In a tethered system that connects various equipment items by a flexible body, such as a cable, it is expected that the system motion would be complicated due to the coupled motion between equipment and flexible body with large deformation. The purpose of this study is to examine the coupled vibration between flexible and rigid bodies using numerical simulation. The analytical model of the tethered system is described as a flexible beam with two rigid bodies. The strength of coupling between the tether and rigid bodies depends on the elasticity of the flexible body. In the case where the tether has low stiffness, the frequencies of the flexible body and rigid bodies in the coupled system correspond approximately to each of the natural frequencies. In addition, when the tether has a high weight in comparison with the rigid bodies, the high-frequency mode of the tether appears dominantly in the rigid bodies’ frequency component.