Viscoelastic Hertzian Impact

Abstract

The problem of normal impact of a rigid sphere on a Maxwell viscoelastic solid half-space is considered. The first-order asymptotic solution is constructed in the framework of Hunter’s model of viscoelastic impact. In particular, simple analytical approximations have been derived for the maximum contact force and the time to achieve it. A linear regression method is suggested for evaluating the instantaneous elastic modulus and the mean relaxation time from a set of experimental data collected for different spherical impactors and impact velocities.

Keywords

• impact problem
• spherical impactor
• Hertzian impact
• Maxwell viscoelastic solid
• asymptotic model
• maximum contact force