Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea ISSN:1229-3059(Print) 2287-2302(Online) 한국전산구조공학회 논문집

The objective of this study is to propose closed-form solutions to the free vibration response of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems, as part of fundamental research on dynamic systems with Coulomb friction. The motion of a dynamic system with Coulomb friction is described by a nonlinear differential equation, and, due to the variation in the sign of friction force term with the direction of motion, it is difficult to obtain the closed-form solution. To solve this problem, the nonlinear differential equation is directly computed by numerical integration, or an approximated solution is indirectly obtained using a linear differential equation wherein the damping effect due to Coulomb friction is replaced by an equivalent viscous damping term. However, these conventional methods do not provide a closed-form solution from a mathematical point of view. In this regard, closed-form solutions to the free vibration response of SDOF systems with Coulomb friction are derived herein by considering that the sign of the friction force term is reversed in each half-cycle of motion and by expanding it to the entire time history using the power series function. In addition, for a given initial condition, both the number of free vibration half-cycles and the response at the instant when free vibration motion stops are predicted under the condition that the motion of free vibration is stopped when the amplitude of the friction force is higher than that of the restoring force due to stiffness.