Among all the fields in solid mechanics the methodologies associated to
multibody dynamics are probably those that provide a better framework to
aggregate different disciplines. This idea is clearly reflected in the
multidisciplinary applications in biomechanics that use multibody
dynamics to describe the motion of the biological entities, or in finite
elements where the multibody dynamics provides powerful tools to
describe large motion and kinematic restrictions between system
components, or in system control for which multibody dynamics are the
prime form of describing the systems under analysis, or even in
applications with fluid-structures interaction or aeroelasticity. This
book contains revised and enlarged versions of selected communications
presented at the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference in Multibody Dynamics 2003
that took place in Lisbon, Portugal, which have been enhanced in their
self-containment and tutorial aspects by the authors. The result is a
comprehensive text that constitutes a valuable reference for researchers
and design engineers and helps to appraise the potential of application
of multibody dynamics to a wide range of scientific and engineering
areas of relevance.