Dynamics of Axial Rods With Frictional Joints

Almost every modern engineering structure incorporates some form of mechanical interface, a connection between two otherwise separate mechanical structures. Complex machines and structures such as automobiles, bridges, aircraft, rockets, etc. rely heavily on these interfaces; however, high-fidelity numerical analysis of such connected structures is currently extremely difficult and computationally expensive due to the disparate length and time scales of the interface as compared to those characterizing the overall structure. This paper utilizes recent work in modal analysis of joints using reduced-order models to study the nonlinear effects of these systems while remaining computationally tractable.