VIBRATIONS OF A FOUR-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM RIGID BODY SLIDING AGAINST A WAVY SURFACE

It has been shown that certain patterns of surface waviness on a counter surface, in conjunction with speed and stiffness of a slider can create vibrations that reduce slider wear. This study attempts to simulate these vibrations, with the goal of understanding how the slider interacts with the surface waviness, to produce a given vibration. This paper develops a model of a four-degree-of-freedom rigid body pressed against a sliding counter surface, and studies its vibration motions under several conditions. The four degrees of freedom include one translation normal to the sliding surface and three rotations. The effects of waviness of the counter surface on the system responses are also studied. To model loading effects between the slider and a wavy counter surface that has multiple points of contact, an equivalent contact point is defined that is assumed to move along a certain path on the sliderʹs contact surface. Several possible paths of the equivalent contact point over the slider face were studied, and their effects are discussed. With appropriate choice of parameters, the simulation results were comparable to experimental results obtained in a previous study.