Impact of a Fixed-Length Rigid Cylinder on an Elastic-Plastic Homogeneous Body

Abstract

A contact mechanics (CM) based model of a fixed-length rigid cylinder impacting a homogeneous elastic-plastic homogeneous body was developed and includes an improved method of estimating the residual depth after impact. The nonlinear elastic behavior during unloading was accounted for to develop an improved coefficient of restitution model. The impact model was applied to study a practical case of a cylindrical feature on the slider of a magnetic storage hard disk drive impacting the disk to predict various critical impact contact parameters. The CM model was validated using a plane strain finite element model and it was found that a cylindrical feature with a longer length results in a substantial alleviation of impact damage.