In computer simulation the term "multibody system" is usually employed to describe a system of interconnected bodies. Several examples of multibody systems can be found in railway engineering. A wheelset interacting with a track through a contact interface is just one example of practical interest. Modelling mechanical systems in a virtual environment contributes to the understanding of subjects such as dynamic behaviour, stability, durability, wear, fatigue, etc. In the context of a rigid-flexible multibody system mathematically described by a weak-form, the purpose of the present work is to evaluate the contributions due to rigid bodies considering their contact interactions. Inertial contributions due to distribution of mass of a rigid body are fully developed, considering a general pole position associated with a single node, representing a rigid body element. Rodrigues rotation parameters are used to describe finite rotations, by an updated Lagrangian description. Then, the so-called master-surface to mastersurface contact formulation is adapted to be used in conjunction with the rigid body element and flexible bodies, aiming to consider their interaction in a rigid-flexible multibody environment. New surface parameterizations are proposed to establish contact pairs, permitting pointwise interaction in a frictional scenario. The proposed formulation is used to represent mechanical systems from different contexts, including a numerical example of the wheel-rail contact interface. The obtained results show the robustness and applicability of the methods.
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