Characterization of Contact Damping and Frequency in Elastic-Plastic Contact

Elastic-plastic interaction of a block of rough surface with a smooth plane is considered in this paper. The nonlinear normal vibration response of the block is examined when subject to an external compressive load. Free vibration response of the block is studied. The vibration response corresponds to the application of a constant compressive external load and the study yields closed-form equations for the contact damping rate and contact natural frequency. It is shown that vibration decay rate is constant as opposed to the exponential decay rate for the linear vibrating systems. Closed form equations relating contact damping rate and contact natural frequency to the surface parameters are given.