Identification of the dynamic characteristics of a structure with coulomb friction

The effect of coulomb friction on the Kennedy and Pancu vector plot of a single degree-of-freedom system is analyzed by using the method of harmonic balance. It is shown that the resulting diagram no longer conforms to a locus of a circle in the resonant region, which restricts the usual methods of analysis. A technique, based upon the in-phase and quadrature power dissipated when exciting a normal mode, is presented which allows the magnitude of the non-linear friction force and the hysteretic damping constant to be evaluated. The technique is also applied to systems having several degrees-of-freedom and it shows that it is possible to identify the characteristics of a single non-linear coulomb device situated within a structure, but in the case of more than one device, the technique has some restrictions. The theoretical results are compared with experimental data from a structure containing a non-linear coulomb device.