Explicit Modelling of Microslip Behaviour in Dry Friction Contact

In many engineering applications the influence of a slipping contact interface has a major impact on the experienced damping in the structure. Predicting the generated damping is of uttermost importance to ensure an accurate analysis of the dynamic response of the system. Microslip, during which part of the contact is still stuck, and part is already slipping, plays a significant role in this damping, since many applications experience only this from of energy dissipation during operation. This paper investigates the possibility to capture microslip accurately with an explicit, quasi static modelling approach, where a large amount of traditional friction elements are distributed over a small contact area and a realistic pressure field is applied to reproduce the contact conditions. The resulting predicted hysteresis loops show microslip like behaviour, and the detailed contact mesh allows identifying the underlying nonlinear mechanism.