Cam with Boundary Selection
Figure 3-1: Example of a cam-follower with cam having boundary selection.
Connection Constraint
The following constraint is added in order to impose the cam and follower connection:
In case the connection is conditionally active, the constraint expression is modified to the following:
Here Δ is the connection tolerance. The gap and slip variables used in the connection constraint are defined in the following section.
Gap and Slip Definition
The gap variable is a measure of distance between the follower point and its closest point on cam boundaries in the spatial normal direction.
The slip variable is a measure of distance between the follower point and its closest point on cam boundaries. Hence it is used to activate or deactivate connection constraint based on the specified connection tolerance.
The gap and slip between the follower point and cam boundaries can be defined as:
Here
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xf is the spatial position of the follower point.
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xc is the spatial position of a closest point on the cam boundaries.
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nc is the spatial normal of a closest point on the cam boundaries.
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Xoffset is the initial offset/gap between the follower point and cam boundaries in the normal direction.