Forced Vibrations of a Single-Degree-of-Freedom System With Coulomb Bearing Friction

Abstract

The equation of motion of a single-degree-of-freedom mechanical system with Coulomb friction acting at two bearings is derived. The equation is nonlinear, but may be solved by piecewise linearization. For the case of transient oscillations, the amplitude decreases by a constant ratio every half cycle and, in this respect, the behavior resembles that of viscous damping rather than the type of Coulomb damping which has previously been investigated. The steady-state response with a forcing function is determined for the case of small damping. In addition to the amplitude and phase angle of the motion, a solution requires the determination of a second angle which defines the linearized regions.