Attaching a rotational spring between two discs

Hi,

I am quite new to Simscape, and need some help with using a rotational spring to couple two rigid blocks. Attached is a figure of what I would like to achieve, but I am not quite sure how to pull this of in Simscape. I understand that joints can be given a stiffness, but that is not what I am looking for. This is more like two parallel bodies being actuated by the same motor.

I tried using rotational springs, but am not quite sure how to connect it to the 3D bodies of the spool.

[Aarjav Khara]

Here is my attempt at achieving this. This model looks the same as the sketch in the main question, but the spring does not seem to be implemented correctly. I get an error saying:

An error occurred while running the simulation and the simulation was terminated

Caused by:

• ['CouplingAttempt/Solver Configuration']: Initial conditions solve failed to converge.
• Nonlinear solver: Linear Algebra error. Failed to solve using iteration matrix.
• The model may not give enough information to make it possible to solve for values of some of its variables. Specific advice is given below. all components and nodal across variables involvedTie variable 'Rotational_Spring.R.w' (Rotational velocity) to a definite value, for example by connecting an appropriate domain reference block. Dependency found among topology equations. Check for missing reference node.

Note, that I have set initial angle of all revolute joints to 0 degrees. The revolute joints connecting to the solid bricks have motion limits [-90,0] degrees.

Answer 1

[Aarjav Khara]

Just adding a spring stiffness in the revolute joints attached to the spools and placing them in series fixes the issue. I still don't know how to interface the rotational spring with the 3D bodies, but the problem is solved.