After receiving his BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, Dr. Anderson went on to earn a MS in the area of dynamic systems and control from the same institution in 1984. He then spent the next two years working in the areas of dynamics, structural dynamics, and controls for TRW Space and Technology in Redondo Beach, California. After this period, he entered the Ph.D. program in Applied and Computational Mechanics at Stanford University, earning his degree in 1990. Dr. Anderson then accepted a position as researcher and principal dynamics engineering at TRW where he was associated with various spacecraft and research programs. In late 1991 Dr. Anderson was invited to Germany for a two-year period as a visiting scholar, lecturer, and research fellow at the Technische Hochscule - Darmstadt. In 1993 he joined the faculty of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mechanics, and Aviation at The Ohio State University, in Columbus where he remained until coming to RPI as faculty member in August 1995.

Dr. Anderson is a member of the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the US Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM), the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), Tau Beta Pi, Pi Tau Sigma, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.
 

Research Interests and Activities

Professors Anderson's primary research goals are associated with development of advanced algorithms for modeling, simulating, and analyzing the behavior of complex dynamic systems. Examples of such systems include, but are not limited to, molecular dynamic systems, spacecraft, robotic systems, automotive applications, the human body, and manufacturing operations. These analysis and simulation tools emphasize the use of algorithms which obtain the desired accuracy, while requiring far fewer computational operations than their more traditional counterparts. This results in simulations which run much more quickly, or equally important, allows a level modeling and analysis which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. This is a accomplished through the use of special low operational order algorithms, multirate temporal integration methods, and intelligent exploitation of parallel computing.

The general areas of research being pursued in the Computational Dynamics Laboratory at Rensselaer emphasize the research, development and application of multiscale adaptive methods for the modeling and analysis of complex dynamic systems, as wells virtual protyping tools involving complex, yet efficient multibody (rigid and flexible) dynamics simulations in multidisciplinary design, analysis, and optimization. Specific problems being investigated include: Development of highly efficient parallelizable algorithms for general molecular and multibody systems; Determination of the optimal form of the equations of motion (in the sense of maximizing simulation speed) for a complex multibody system when available computer resources have sub-optimal numbers of processors; Automated determination of design parameter values which yield near optimal design performance of complex mechanism from a dynamics point of view; Development of methods for producing design sensitivity information at a greatly reduced cost; Multi-Rate temporal integration schemes; Simulation, Design and Control of MEMS devices; Advanced material modelling; Molecular systems; Biomechanical modeling; Multi-continuous body modeling of the dynamic behavior of translating media (e.g. drive belts, tracks and tracked vehicles, etc.).
 

Other Items of Interest:

Research Affiliations

• Rensselaer Computational Dynamics Laboratory
• Rensselaer Scientific Computation Research Center (SCoReC)
• Rensselaer Multiscale Science and Engineering Center (MSEC)
• New York State Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS)
• Rensselaer Flexible Manufacturing Center (FMC)
• Wadsworth Center, - New State Department of Health
• LAMMPS: Large-scale Atomistic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulation, (POEMS is now part of LAMMPS!)

  
  

  Conferences and Organizations

• ASME Multibody Systems and Nonlinear Dynamics Technical Committee (MSND-TC)
• 8th World Congress on Compuational Mechanics , Venice, Italy
• 12th Conference on NONLINEAR VIBRATIONS, STABILITY, AND DYNAMCICS OF STRUCTURES, Blacksburg, VA
• ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers In Engineering Conferences (IDETC 2009), San Diego, CA
     >> Symposia List and Call for Papers
• 6th ASME International Conference on Multibody Systems, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Controls

  
  

  Journals

• ASME Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics
• The journal Multibody Systems Dynamics
• The journal Nonlinear Dynamics
• AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics
• International Journal of Multiscale Computational Engineering

  
  

  Course Related Materials (Winter 2009)

• MANE-4100 Space Flight Mechanics Syllabus
• MANE-4170 Machine Dynamics Syllabus
• MANE-4170 Machine Dynamics Notes

Selected Publications:

(Publications marked in red are available in a .pdf format. If you do not have a .pdf reader you can get a free viewer from Adobe®)

R.M. Mukherjee,P.S. Crozier, S.J. Plimpton, and K.S. Anderson " Substructured Molecular Dynamics Using Multibody Dynamics Algorithms", International Journal of Nonlinear Mechanics - Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics of Macromolecules, in review.

J.H. Critchley, A. Binani, and K.S. Anderson " Design and Implementation of an Efficient Multibody Divide and Conquer Algorithm", Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics, in review.

R.M. Mukherjee and K.S. Anderson " Efficient Methodology for Multibody Simulations With Discontinuous Chainges in System Definition", Multibody Sysems Dynamics, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 145-168, Spetember, 2007.

R.M. Mukherjee, K.D. Bhalerao and K.S. Anderson " A Divide and Conquer Direct Differentiation Approach for Multibody Systems Sensitivity Analysis ", Structural and Multidisciplinay Optimization, Available online at http://www.springerlink.com, Paper DOI10.1007/s00158-007-0142-2, 2007.

R.M. Mukherjee and K.S. Anderson " An Orthogonal Complement-Based Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm for Constrained Multibody Systems ", Nonlinear Dynamics, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, pp. 199-215, April, 2007.

R.M. Mukherjee and K.S. Anderson " A Logarithmic Complexity Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm for Multi-Flexible Articulated Body Systems ", ASME Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 10-21, 2007.

K.S. Anderson, R. Mukherjee, J.H. Critchley, J.L. Ziegler, and S.R. Lipton " POEMS: Parallelizable Open-source Efficient Multibody Software ", Engineering With Computers, Vol. 23,No. 1, pp. 11-23, 2007.

M. Oghbaei and K.S. Anderson, " A New Time-Finite-Element Implicit Integration Scheme for Multibody System Dyanmics Simulation ", Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol. 195, pp. 7006-7019, 2006.

K.S. Anderson and M. Oghbaei, " A Dynamics Simulation of Multibody Systems Using a New State-Time Methodology ", Multibody Systems Dynamics, Vol. 14, pp. 61-80, 2005.

K.S. Anderson and M. Oghbaei, " A State-Tme Formulation for Dynamic Systems Simulation Using Massively Parallel Computing Resources ", Nonlinear Dynamics, Vol. 39, pp. 305-318, 2005

O. Gundogdu, K.S. Anderson, and M. Parnianpour, " Simulation of Manual Materials handling: Biomedcial Assessment Under Different Lifting Conditions", Health and Technology, Vol. 13, pp. 57-66, 2005.

O. Gundogdu, M. Parnianpour, and K.S. Anderson, " Development of a Genetic Algorithm Based Biomedical Simulation of Sagittal Lifting Tasks", Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 12-19, 2005.

J.H. Critchley and K.S. Anderson , " Parallel Logarithmic Order Algorithm for General Multibody System Dynamics ", Journal of Multiscale Computational Engineering, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 75-93, August 2004

K.S. Anderson and Y.H. Hsu "Order(n+m)" Direct Differentiation Determination of Design Sensitivity for Constrained Multibody Dynamic Systems", Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, Vol 26, No. 3-4, pp. 171-182, February 2004. abstract

J.H. Critchley and K.S. Anderson , "A Generalized Recursive Coordinate Reduction Method for Multibody Dynamic Systems", Journal of Multiscale Computational Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 181-200, 2003

K.S. Anderson and J.H. Critchley, " Improved Order-n Performance Algorithm for the Simulation of Constrained Multi-Rigid-Body Systems", Multibody Systems Dynamics, Vol. 9, pp.185-212, 2003.

Y.H. Hsu and K.S. Anderson, " Recursive Sensitivity Analysis for Constrained Multi-rigid-body Dynamic Systems Design Optimization", Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 312-324, October 2002. abstract

K.S. Anderson and Y.H. Hsu, "Analytical Full-Recursive Sensitivity Analysis for Multibody Chain Systems", Multibody Systems Dynamics, Vo. 8, No. 1, pp. 1-27, 2002. abstract

K.S. Anderson and Y.H. Hsu, "Domain Approximation and Deterministic Progression in Genetic Crossover", Engineering Optimization, Vol. 33, pp. 683-706, 2001 abstract

Y.H. Hsu and K.S. Anderson, "Low Operational Order Analytic Sensitivity Analysis for Tree-Type Multibody Dynamic Systems", AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol. 24, No. 6. pp. 1133-1143, December 2001. abstract

O. Kopmaz and K.S. Anderson, "On the Eigenfrequencies of a Flexible Arm driven by a Flexible Shaft", Journal of Sound and Vibrations, Vol. 240, no.4, pp 679-704, 2001. abstract

K.S. Anderson and S. Duan, "Highly Parallelizable Low Order Dynamics Algorithm for Complex Multi-Rigid-Body Systems", AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics. Vol. 23, No. 2, March-April, 2000, pp. 355-364.

K.S. Anderson and S. Duan, "Parallel Implementation of a Low Order Algorithm for Dynamics of Multibody Systems on a Distributed Memory Computing System", journal Engineering with Computers, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2000, pp 96-108. abstract

K.S. Anderson and S. Duan, "A Hybrid Parallelizable Low Order Algorithm for Dynamics of Multi-Rigid-Body Systems: Part I, Chain Systems", journal Mathematical and Computer Modelling vol. 30, 1999, pp. 193-215. abstract

K.S. Anderson, "Efficient Modeling of General Multibody Dynamic Systems with Flexible Components", Computational Dynamics in Multibody Systems, Editors: M.S. Pereira, and J.A.C. Ambrosia, Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1995.

K.S. Anderson and Gundogdu. "Optimal Trajectory Determination for Sagitally Symmetric Manual Lifting Tasks", journal Mathematical & Computational Applications, Vol. 4, No.2, pp.169-174, 1999.

K.S. Anderson, P. Hagedorn, "On the Energy Dissipation in Spacer-Dampers in Bundled Conductors of Overhead Transmission Lines," Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 180, Nr. 4, pp. 539-556, 1995.

K.S. Anderson, P. Hagedorn, "On the Control of Orbital Drift of Geostationary Tethered Satellites", AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 17, Nr. 1, pp. 10-16, 1994.

K.S. Anderson, "An Efficient Formulation for the Modeling of General Multi-Flexible-Body Constrained Systems", International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 30, No. 7, pp. 921-945, 1993

K.S. Anderson, "An Efficient Modeling of Constrained Multibody Systems for Application with Parallel Computing", Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, Vol. 73, No. 6, pp. 935-939, 1993.

K.S. Anderson, "An Order-N Formulation for the Motion Simulation of General Constrained Multi-Rigid-Body Systems", journal Computers and Structures, Vol. 43, Nr. 3, pp. 565-579, 1992.

K.S. Anderson, "An Order-N Formulation for the Motion Simulation of General Multi-Rigid-Body Tree Systems", journal Computers and Structures, Vol. 46, Nr. 3, pp. 547-559, 1991.

K.S. Anderson and S. Duan, "Equations of Motion of Spool Valves with Eccentric Clearance", submitted to the Journal of Sound and Vibration, under review

O. Kopmaz and K.S. Anderson, "Identification of Nodal and Antinodal Lines Locations of Plates with Virtual Elements", Journal of Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing, to appear vol. 10, 2000.