Identifying Coulomb and Viscous Friction from Free-Vibration Decrements

This study focuses on an algorithm for the simultaneous identification of Coulomb and viscous damping effects from free-vibration decrements in a damped linear single degree-of-freedom (DOF) mass-spring system. Analysis shows that both damping effects can indeed be separated. Numerical study of a combined-damping system demonstrates a perfect match between the simulation parameters and the estimated values. Experimental study includes two types of real systems. The method is applied to an experimental industrial bearing. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations to illustrate the reliability of this method. An analysis provides conservative bounds on error estimates. An example of the effect of quantization error on the estimations is included.