Semi-conductive polymer composites are used in a wide range of sensors, measurement devices. This paper discusses the development of a model and a new theoretical formulation for predicting piezoresistive behavior in semi-conductive polymer composites including their creep behavior and contact resistance. The relationship between electrical resistance and force applied to the piezoresistive force sensor can be predicted by using the proposed theoretical formulation. In order to verify the proposed formulation, the piezoresistive behavior of Linqstat, a carbonfilled polyethylene, was modelled mathematically. In addition, some experimental tests such as Thermo Gravitational Analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy have been performed on Linqstat to find the volume fraction and size of carbon particles which are essential for modeling. In addition, on a fabricated force sensor using Linqstat, a the force vs. resistance curve was obtained experimentally which verified the validity and reliability of the proposed formulation.

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Index-3 augmented Lagrangian formulations with projections of velocities and accelerations represent an efficient and robust method to carry out the forward-dynamics simulation of multibody systems modeled in dependent coordinates. Existing formalisms, however, were only established for holonomic systems, for which the expression of the constraints at the position-level is known. In this work, an extension of the original algorithms for nonholonomic systems is introduced. Moreover, projections of velocities and accelerations have two side effects: they modify the kinetic energy of the system and they contribute to the constraint reaction forces. Although the effects of the projections on the energy have been studied by several authors, their role in the calculation of the reaction forces has not been described so far. In this work, expressions to determine the constraint reactions from the Lagrange multipliers of the dynamic equations and the Lagrange multipliers of the velocity and acceleration projections are introduced. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can be used to expand the capabilities of index-3 augmented Lagrangian algorithms, making them able to deal with nonholonomic constraints and provide correct reaction efforts.

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In this paper, we generalize the idea of the free-body diagram for analytical mechanics for representations of mechanical systems in configuration space. The configuration space is characterized locally by an Euclidean tangent space. A key element in this work relies on the relaxation of constraint conditions. A new set of steps is proposed to treat constrained systems. According to this, the analysis should be broken down to two levels: (1) the specification of a transformation via the relaxation of the constraints; this defines a subspace, the space of constrained motion; and (2) specification of conditions on the motion in the space of constrained motion. The formulation and analysis associated with the first step can be seen as the generalization of the idea of the free-body diagram. This formulation is worked out in detail in this paper. The complement of the space of constrained motion is the space of admissible motion. The parametrization of this second subspace is generally the task of the analyst. If the two subspaces are orthogonal then useful decoupling can be achieved in the dynamics formulation. Conditions are developed for this orthogonality. Based on this, the dynamic equations are developed for constrained and admissible motions. These are the dynamic equilibrium equations associated with the generalized free-body diagram. They are valid for a broad range of constrained systems, which can include, for example, bilaterally constrained systems, redundantly constrained systems, unilaterally constrained systems, and nonideal constraint realization.

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