Characterization of the optimal damping coefficient in the continuous contact model

This paper presents an analytical formula to characterize the damping coefficient as a function of system’s parameters in a continuous force model of impact. The contact force element consists of a linear damper which is in a parallel connection to a spring with Hertz force-deformation characteristic. Unlike the existing models in which the separation condition is assumed to be at the time at which both zero penetration (deformation) and zero force occur, in this study, only zero contact force is considered as the separation condition. To ensure that the continuous contact model obtains the desired restitution, an optimization process is performed to find the equivalent damping coefficient. The analytical and numerical investigations show that the resulting damping coefficient can be expressed as a function of system’s parameters such as the effective mass, penetration speed at the start of the impact, Hertz spring constant, and the coefficient of restitution.