Recently, the finite element absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) was developed for the large deformation analysis of flexible bodies in multi-body dynamics. This formulation is based on the finite element procedures and the general continuum mechanics theory to represent the elastic forces. In this paper, a computation method of dynamic stress in flexible multi-body dynamics using absolute nodal coordinate formulation is proposed. Numerical examples, based on an Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, are shown to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. This method can be applied for predicting the fatigue life of a mechanical system. Moreover, this study demonstrates that structural and multi-body dynamic models can be unified in one numerical system.
