Three-Dimensional Modeling and Simulation of a Falling Electronic Device

This article focuses on a realistic mathematical model for multiple impacts of a rigid body to a viscoelastic ground and its comparison to theoretic results. The methodology is used to study impact on an electronic device. When an electronic device drops to the floor at an uneven level, the rapid successions of impact sequence are important for their shock response to internal structure of the devices. A three-dimensional, continuous contact, computational impact model has been developed to simulate a sequence of multiple impacts of a falling rigid body with the ground. The model simulates the impact procedure explicitly and thus is capable of providing detailed information regarding impact load, impact contact surface, and the status of the body during the impact. For the purposes of model verification, we demonstrate the numerical simulation of a falling rod problem, in which the numerical results are in good agreement with the analytic solutions based on discrete contact dynamics impact models. It is indicated by the numerical experiments that simultaneous impacts occurred to multiple locations of the body and that subsequent impacts might be larger than initial ones due to different angles of impact. The differential equation-based computational model is shown to be realistic and efficient in simulating impact sequence and laid a foundation for detailed finite element analysis of the interior impact response of an electronic device.