Experimental Investigation on Frictional Interfaces of a Bolted Flange System

The coupling between the frictional energy dissipation and the dynamic response at the joint interface leads to mechanisms that are challenging to identify relying mainly on numerical data. The need for experimental analyses of such mechanisms is vital for better understanding of the inherent features in the contact interface dynamic response and for creating models that can evolve with changes in the system and environment. This work looks to gain insights about the different frictional mechanisms in the contact interface such as micro-vibro-impacts and micro-slip and macro-slip under different resonance modes and different environmental conditions. A bolted flange system was designed and manufactured at the Laboratory of Verification and Validation (LVV). Two main sensing systems are used for the testing using accelerometers and displacement sensors. All tests were performed in an environmental control chamber that contains a large multi-axial shaker. The interest in this work focuses on the hysteresis information near resonance which provides insight into the interaction between two substructures along with the contact interface.