A continuous contact force model of planar revolute joint based on fitting method

Both the process of eliminating the clearance in joints and the contact–impact process involve movement of a clearance mechanism, which may reduce transmission accuracy and lengthen the response time. An appropriate continuous contact force model is able to describe the contact phenomena of a joint with clearance in a facile manner. However, two main problems still should be solved in building the continuous contact force model. First, the elastic force parts in previous continuous contact force models for a revolute joint were established by amending the force exponent of the Hertz spherical contact model or by the modified Winkler contact model. Nevertheless, the force exponent is usually given by experience, and the thickness of the elastic layer in the Winkler theory is difficult to determine. Second, for the previous damping force parts of a revolute joint, the hysteretic damping coefficients were obtained by substituting the stiffness coefficient with the contact stiffness of revolute joint directly instead of using the energy conservation method for the complicated form of elastic force model. A feasible continuous contact force model based on a fitting method was proposed to avoid these problems. According to the experimental results, the continuous contact force model can be used to predict the contact characteristics of a planar revolute joint in a facile manner.