Dynamics of three rigid block assemblies with unilateral deformable contacts. Part 1: Contact modelling.

As far as the dynamics of multibody systems is concerned, a brief review has been performed in order to frame the dynamic response of a trilith (the simplest scheme of a colonnade belonging to a temple) into a wide theoretical background. Under the assumption of rigid bodies, two different approaches can be found in the literature: rigid or deformable contacts formulation. In this paper, an effort is made at outlining the principle of rigid contact formulation and of deformable contact formulation. The latter approach can be assumed within the framework of the distinct element method; for this purpose a model of deformable contact has been proposed in order to simulate the real behaviour of stone joints. The sample application referred to the trilith will be presented in Part 2.