Linear Friction Damper Consisted of Cylindrical Block and Inclined Lever (Improvement to Avoid Sprag-Slip Problem and Analytical Model to Verify Cause)

For the passive isolation systems, the ordinary friction damper of constant friction force has performance limitations. This is, because the isolation characteristic declines and the displacement remains apart from the equilibrium position after the disturbance disappears, when the friction force is large. It is known that the above drawbacks are improved when the friction force varies depending on the displacement. The authors have proposed a new type of friction damper in our previous paper. This friction damper uses an inclined lever, which contacts the cylindrical block by means of a rotational spring. The angle of inclination of the lever varies together with the displacement of the cylindrical block. Then, the normal and friction forces on the contact surface vary depending on the displacement. However, “Sprag-slip” vibration occurred in some cases in the experiments. This paper investigates the cause of the vibration and a design to prevent it. Then, an analytical model is proposed to simulate the problem and to estimate the effect of improvement.