Multibody Systems with Flexible Elements

1. Introduction

The formalism of multibody systems offers a means of computer-assisted algorithmic analysis and a means of simulating and optimizing an arbitrary movement of a possible high number of elastic bodies in the connection. The domains where researchers apply these methods are robotics, simulation of the dynamics of vehicles, biomechanics, aerospace engineering (helicopters, the behavior of cars in the gravitational field), internal combustion engines, gearboxes, transmissions, mechanisms, the cellulose industry, simulation of particle behavior (granulated particles and molecules), dynamic simulation, military applications, computer games, medicine, and rehabilitation. As a result, multibody systems have become widely used in all industries, such as in automotive engineering, airspace engineering, construction, and manufacturing [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. It is for these reasons that there is continuous research into the development of the field. Some of this research is presented in this volume, in which a large group of researchers will present their latest findings. We hope that researchers will find an interesting and useful volume of information for their future work, but that the results will also be used by engineers for practical applications.

2. Statistics of the Special Issue

The statistics of papers called for this Special Issue, related to published or rejected items, are as follows [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]: 26 total submissions, of which 15 were published (57.6%) and 11 rejected (42.3%). The authors′ geographical distribution is shown in Table 1, and it can be seen that the 38 authors are from 9 different countries. Note that it is usual for a paper to be written by more than one author, and for authors to collaborate with authors with different affiliations or multiple affiliations.

Table 1. Geographic distribution of authors by country.

Country	Number of Authors
Romania	22
Saudi Arabia	3
India	2
China	5
Egypt	3
Vietnam	2
Iran	2
UK	1
Poland	1

3. Authors of the Special Issue

The authors of this Special Issue and their main affiliations are summarized in Table 2, and it can be seen that there are three authors on average per manuscript.

Table 2. Affiliations and bibliometric indicators for authors.

Author	Affiliation	References
Marilena Ghitescu	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[9,12,13]
Ioan-Marius Ghitescu	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[9,12,13]
Sorin Vlase	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania Technical Sciences Academy of Romania, B-dul Dacia 26, 030167 Bucharest, Romania	[9,13,18,19,22]
Paul Nicolae Borza	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[9,12,13]
Octavian Postavaru	Center for Research and Training in Innovative Techniques of Applied Mathematics in Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania	[10]
Antonela Toma	Center for Research and Training in Innovative Techniques of Applied Mathematics in Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania	[10]
Joseph Dianavinnarasi	Department of Mathematics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi 630 004, India	[11]
Ramachandran Raja	Ramanujan Centre for Higher Mathematics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi 630 004, India	[11]
Jehad Alzabut	Department of Mathematics and General Sciences, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh 12435, Saudi Arabia	[11]
Michał Niezabitowski	Department of Automatic Control and Robotics, Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland	[11]
Ovidiu Bagdasar	Department of Electronics, Computing and Mathematics, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK	[11]
Marin Marin	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[12,20,22]
Maria Luminita Scutaru	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[12,19,22]
Calin Itu	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[14]
Polidor Bratu	ICECON SA, Bucharest, Romania	[14,15]
Dorin Lixandroiu	Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania	[14]
Chen Wang	Key Laboratory of Exploration Mechanism of the Deep Space Planet Surface, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211100, China	[16]
Jinbao Chen	Key Laboratory of Exploration Mechanism of the Deep Space Planet Surface, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211100, China	[16]
Shan Jia	Key Laboratory of Exploration Mechanism of the Deep Space Planet Surface, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211100, China	[16]
Heng Chen	Field Engineering College, Army Engineering University of PLA, Nanjing 210001, China	[16]
Attila Gerocs	Doctoral School of Mechanical Engineering, “Eftimie Murgu” University of Resita, 320085 Resita, Romania	[17]
Gilbert-Rainer Gillich	Doctoral School of Mechanical Engineering, “Eftimie Murgu” University of Resita, 320085 Resita, Romania	[17]
Dorian Nedelcu	Doctoral School of Mechanical Engineering, “Eftimie Murgu” University of Resita, 320085 Resita, Romania	[17]
Zoltan-Iosif Korka	Doctoral School of Mechanical Engineering, “Eftimie Murgu” University of Resita, 320085 Resita, Romania	[17]
Gina Diana Musca (Anghelache)	Engineering and Agronomy Faculty in Braila, Research Center for Mechanics of Machines and Technological Equipments, “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, 810017 Braila, Romania	[18]
Carmen Debeleac	Engineering and Agronomy Faculty in Braila, Research Center for Mechanics of Machines and Technological Equipments, “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, 810017 Braila, Romania	[18]
Gabriel Leonard Mitu	COMAT, SA, str. Zizinului, nr.111, 500002 Brasov, Romania	[19]
Eliza Chircan	Department of Mechanical Engineering, Transilvania University of Brașov, B-dulEroilor 20, 500036 Brașov, Romania
Aatef Hobiny	Nonlinear Analysis and Applied Mathematics Research Group (NAAM), Mathematics Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21521, Saudi Arabia	[20]
Faris Alzahrani	Nonlinear Analysis and Applied Mathematics Research Group (NAAM), Mathematics Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21521, Saudi Arabia	[20]
Ibrahim Abbas	Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag 82524, Egypt	[20]
Ahmed A. El-Deeb	Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo 11884, Egypt	[21]
Samer D. Makharesh	Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo 11884, Egypt	[21]
Dumitru Baleanu	Cankaya University, Ankara, Turkey Institute of Space Sciences, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan, China	[10,12,21,23]
Iuliu Negrean	Technical Sciences Academy of Romania; B-dul Dacia 26, 030167 Bucharest, Romania Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Str. Memorandumului 28, 400114 Cluj-Napoca, Romania	[22]
Mohammad Reza Mahmoudi	Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, Fasa University, Fasa, Fars 7461686131, Iran	[23]
Roya Nasirzadeh	Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, Fasa University, Fasa, Fars 7461686131, Iran	[23]
Kim-Hung Pho	Fractional Calculus, Optimization and Algebra Research Group, Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City 72915, Vietnam	[23]

4. Brief Overview of the Contributions to the Special Issue

The analysis of the topics identifies or summarizes the research undertaken. This section classifies the manuscripts according to the topics proposed in the Special Issue. There are three topics that are dominant, namely: modeling of the multibody system with symmetries, symmetry in applied mathematics and analytical methods in the symmetric multibody systems.