Identification of Iwan distribution density function in frictional contacts

Mechanical contacts affect structural responses, causing localized nonlinear variations in the stiffness and damping. The physical behaviors of contact interfaces are quite complicated and almost impossible to model at the micro-scale. In order to establish a meaningful understanding of the friction effects and to predict the contact behavior, a robust parametric friction model is usually employed. This paper employs an Iwan-type model to predict the nonlinear effects of a frictional contact interface. The Iwan model is characterized by its distribution density function which is commonly identified by double differentiation of the experimentally obtained joint interface restoring force. Direct measurement of restoring forces at the contact interface is impractical and estimating it using an inverse approach introduces considerable uncertainties in identification of the density function. This paper develops a more reliable procedure in identification of the Iwan model by relating the density function to the joint interface dissipated energy. The energy dissipated in a contact interface is easily obtained from measurement and it is shown that the dissipation is uniquely defined using the density function and the vibration amplitude. In an experimental case study Iwan distribution density function in a frictional contact is obtained using measured dissipations at different vibration levels.