Morembs—A Model Order Reduction Package for Elastic Multibody Systems and Beyond

Many new promising model order reduction (MOR) methods and algorithms were developed during the last decade. Industry and academic research institutions intend to test, validate, compare, and use these new promising MOR techniques with their own models. Therefore, an MOR toolbox bridging the gap between theoretical, algorithmic, and numerical developments to an end-user-oriented program, usable by non-experts, was developed called ‘Model Order Reduction of Elastic Multibody Systems’ (Morembs). A C++ implementation as well as a Matlab implementation including an intuitive graphical user interface is available. Import from various FE programs is possible, and the reduced elastic bodies can be exported to a variety of programs to simulate the compact models. In the course of the various projects, many improvements on the algorithmic side were added. As we learned over the years, there is not one ‘optimal’ MOR method. ‘Optimal’ MOR depends on circumstances, like boundary conditions, excitation spectra, further model usage. The toolbox is now used, e.g., in solid mechanics, biomechanics, vehicle dynamics, control of flexible structures, or crash simulations. In all these use cases, the toolbox allows the user to facilitate their well-known modeling and simulation environment. Only the critical MOR process during preprocessing is performed with Morembs, which helps to compare the various MOR techniques to find the most suited one.