Study of the effect of contact force model on the dynamic response of mechanical systems with dry clearance joints: computational and experimental approaches

The main objective of this work is to present a computational and experimental study on the contact forces developed in revolute clearance joints. For this purpose, a well-known slider-crank mechanism with a revolute clearance joint between the connecting rod and slider is utilized. The intra-joint contact forces that are generated at these clearance joints are computed by considering several different elastic and dissipative approaches, namely those based on the Hertz contact theory and the ESDU tribology-based cylindrical contacts, along with a hysteresis-type dissipative damping. The normal contact force is augmented with the dry Coulomb’s friction force. In addition, an experimental apparatus is used to obtained some experimental data in order to verify and validate the computational models. From the outcomes reported in this paper, it is concluded that the selection of the appropriate contact force model with proper dissipative damping plays a significant role in the dynamic response of mechanical systems involving contact events at low or moderate impact velocities.