An evaluation of methods for modeling contact in multibody simulation

Modeling contact in multibody simulation is a difficult problem frequently characterized by numerically brittle algorithms, long running times, and inaccurate (with respect to theory) models. We present a comprehensive evaluation of four methods for contact modeling on seven benchmark scenarios in order to quantify the performance of these methods with respect to robustness and speed. We also assess the accuracy of these methods where possible. We conclude the paper with a prescriptive description in order to guide the user of multibody simulation.