Comparison of different contact force models for low and moderate impact velocities: Numerical and experimental analysis

Abstract

It has been recognized by many theoretical and experimental investigations that the constitutive contact force law considered to model and analyze contact-impact phenomena is of paramount importance in the prediction of the dynamic behavior of mechanical systems. The main goal of this work is to present a numerical and experimental comparative study on different compliant contact force models. The contact force models utilized in this study are based on the classical Hertzian contact theory, which is augmented with damping terms to accommodate the energy loss during the impact process. The classical impact between a steel ball and a massive surface is used as the demonstrative example of application. The influence of the initial impact velocity and coefficient of restitution is also studied throughout this work. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013.