An Experimental Study of Contact Forces During Oblique Elastic Impact

Low and high speed impacts frequently occur in many mechanical processes. Although widely studied, rarely are normal and tangential force time-waveforms measured, as generally these are very difficult measurements to do accurately. This paper presents, for the first time, a comprehensive set of experimentally obtained contact force waveforms during oblique elastic impact for a range of initial velocities and incidence angles. The experimental apparatus employed in this study was a simple pendulum consisting of a spherical steel striker suspended from a steel wire. The contact force time-waveforms were collected using a tri-axial piezoelectric force transducer sandwiched between a spherical target cap and a large block. The measured contact forces showed that loading was essentially limited to the normal and tangential directions in the horizontal plane. Analysis of the maximum normal and tangential forces for the near glancing angles of incidence indicated a friction coefficient that varies linearly with initial tangential velocity. The essential features of tangential force reversal during impact predicted by previous continuum models are confirmed by the experimental force results.