Abstract : Many flexible multibody applications are characterized by high inertia forces and motion discontinuities. Because of these characteristics, problems can be encountered when large displacement finite element formulations are used in the simulation of flexible multibody systems. In this investigation, the performance of two different large displacement finite element formulations in the analysis of flexible multibody systems is investigated. These are the incremental corotational procedure proposed by Rankin and Brogan and the nonincremental absolute nodal coordinate formulation recently proposed. It is demonstrated in this investigation that the limitation resulting from the use of the nodal rotations in the incremental corotational procedure can lead to simulation problems even when very simple flexible multibody applications are considered. The absolute nodal coordinate formulation, on the other hand, does not employ infinitesimal or finite rotation coordinates and leads to a constant mass matrix. Despite the fact that the absolute nodal coordinate formulation leads to a complex expression for the elastic forces, the results presented in this study, surprisingly, demonstrate that such a formulation is efficient in static problems as compared to the incremental corotational procedure. The excellent performance of the absolute nodal coordinate formulation in static and dynamic problems can be attributed to the fact that such a formulation does not employ rotations and leads to exact representation of the rigid body motion of the finite element.