Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x(Print)/1976-3824(Online)
DOI 10.1007/s12206-015-0808-4

Stochastic modeling of friction force and vibration analysis of

a mechanical system using the model†
Won Seok Kang, Chan Kyu Choi and Hong Hee Yoo*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, Korea

(Manuscript Received December 29, 2014; Revised March 27, 2015; Accepted May 12, 2015)

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Abstract

The squeal noise generated from a disk brake or chatter occurred in a machine tool primarily results from friction-induced vibration.
Since friction-induced vibration is usually accompanied by abrasion and lifespan reduction of mechanical parts, it is necessary to develop
a reliable analysis model by which friction-induced vibration phenomena can be accurately analyzed. The original Coulomb’s friction
model or the modified Coulomb friction model employed in most commercial programs employs deterministic friction coefficients.
However, observing friction phenomena between two contact surfaces, one may observe that friction coefficients keep changing due to
the unevenness of contact surface, temperature, lubrication and humidity. Therefore, in this study, friction coefficients are modeled as
random parameters that keep changing during the motion of a mechanical system undergoing friction force. The integrity of the proposed
stochastic friction model was validated by comparing the analysis results obtained by the proposed model with experimental results.
Keywords: Coulomb friction model; Friction-induced vibration; Friction oscillator; Stochastic friction model
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for the first time and found that friction coefficients depended
1. Introduction
on the materials of two contacting bodies. In addition, Cou-
The sound produced by the contact between a string and a lomb introduced the concepts of static and kinetic friction
bow of a violin, striking of a match to light a candle, motion of coefficients to establish the Coulomb’s friction law. He as-
a train running on rail and an automobile running on a road are serted that the friction force generated by two contacting bod-
typical positive examples of friction-induced phenomena en- ies was independent of the sliding velocity. However, with the
countered in our daily lives. On the other hand, squeal noises original Coulomb’s friction law, certain important friction-
generated by a wiper blade moving on a glass windshield, a induced phenomena such as squeal noise and chatter which
chalk scratching on a blackboard, a disk sliding on a brake pad are surely induced by friction cannot be effectively analyzed.
and machine tool chatter are typical negative examples of To reenact such phenomena, the function of friction force
friction-induced vibration phenomena. The squeal noise or versus relative velocity should be accurately modeled around
machine tool chatter basically results from the friction- the zero relative velocity. The friction force should have nega-
induced vibration phenomena that are easily accompanied by tive gradient around the zero relative velocity. However, with
abrasion, fatigue and lifespan reduction of mechanical parts. the original Coulomb’s friction law, the friction force has dis-
Thus, it is necessary to develop a reliable analysis model by continuity at the zero relative velocity [2]. The discontinuity
which friction-induced phenomena can be accurately analyzed. embedded in the original Coulomb’s friction law not only
Friction has been investigated for a long time and various disables one to reenact the friction-induced phenomena such
friction models have been proposed by several researchers. as squeal and chatter but also causes numerical instability
Leonardo Da Vinci was the first one who studied the friction frequently. Thus various studies have been conducted to over-
systematically. He found that the friction force acting on two come the limitations of the original Coulomb’s friction model.
contacting bodies undergoing relative motion was propor- Karnopp [3] proposed a force-balance model with a small
tional to the normal force between the two contacting bodies. velocity window for one-dimensional motion problems. De-
He also found that the magnitude of friction force was irrele- pending on the size of velocity window, however, the Kar-
vant to the contact area. Coulomb [1] designed a tribometer nopp’s friction model may create problems. If the size of ve-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 2220 0446, Fax.: +82 2 2293 5070 locity window is too small, the stick state may be easily
E-mail address: hhyoo@hanyang.ac.kr missed. On the other hand, if it is too large, the stick state may
†
Recommended by Associate Editor Eung-Soo Shin continue too long. Nevertheless, the Karnopp’s model has
© KSME & Springer 2015
3646 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652
Fig. 1. Microscopic view of two metal surfaces in contact.
been used by many engineers for the numerical analysis of
complex dynamic systems. Later, a piece-wise linear model
was developed by Tariku and Rogers [4]. They also proposed
a method to obtain a proper size of velocity window for the
Karnopp’s friction model. Song, Kraus, Kumar and Dupont
[5] proposed a smooth nonlinear friction force model and
verified the numerical stability of the model by comparing the
numerical results with experimental results. Using a complex
model like the Karnopp’s friction model, problems encoun-
tered in numerical simulation could be resolved and the accu-
racy of simulation could be improved as well. However, since
the efficiency is prioritized in commercial programs, it was
necessary to develop a reliable analysis model with a certain
degree of accuracy. To ensure the numerical stability of inte-
gration, the original Coulomb’s friction model was replaced
by a continuous friction model using a spline function. Such a
model is widely used in commercial analysis programs nowa-
days. A continuous friction model using a hyperbolic tangent
function is employed in DADS [6] and a haversine function
with 4 parameters is employed in RecurDyn [7]. However,
with such friction models employed in commercial programs,
the stick cannot be reenacted due to the continuous function
characteristic. Slow slip always occurs around the zero rela-
tive velocity. To realize the stick precisely, Choi and Yoo [8]
proposed a friction model using the concept of elastic defor-
mation limit and proved the accuracy of the model using ex-
perimental results.
All the models introduced so far assume that friction coeffi-
cients are deterministic. The friction coefficients are, however,
not deterministic due to the random characteristics of friction.
Fig. 1 shows a microscopic view of two metal surfaces in
contact. Two surfaces might look smooth if they are observed
with naked eyes. However, they are not actually smooth if
observed with a microscope. Due to the unevenness of two
surfaces as well as temperature, lubrication and humidity,
friction coefficients are random rather than deterministic.
Therefore, purpose of this study is to propose a stochastic
friction model for the dynamic analysis of a mechanical sys-
tem. Based on measured samples of static and kinetic friction
coefficients, their statistical parameters such as mean and
standard deviation should be obtained first. Using the statisti-
cal parameters, random numbers for static and kinetic friction
coefficients are generated and used for the dynamic analysis
of a mechanical system undergoing friction force.
(a) Original model (b) Modified model
Fig. 2. Original and modified Coulomb’s friction models.
2. Friction modeling
2.1 Existing friction force models
Various friction force models have been developed to reen-
act the characteristics of friction force effectively. For the
purpose, friction force is usually expressed with a function of
relative velocity between two contact points. Fig. 2 shows the
original and modified Coulomb’s friction force models. The
modified friction force model employs a spline function to
avoid the discontinuity of the original model. As shown in Fig.
2(a), the original Coulomb’s friction force model has disconti-
nuity where the relative velocity is 0. The discontinuity may
cause numerical instability during the numerical simulation.
Therefore, commercial analysis programs usually employ the
modified Coulomb’s friction force model. In the modified
Coulomb’s friction force model, friction coefficients are ex-
pressed with a continuous function of relative velocity as fol-
lows:
m (vr ) = HAVSIN(vr ,0,0, vs , m s ), 0 £ vr £ vs
(1)
m (vr ) = HAVSIN(vr , vs , m s , vd , m k ), vr > vs
where HAVSIN function is defined (see Ref. [7]) as follows:
HAVSIN( x, x0 , h0 , x1 , h1 )
= h0 , x £ x0
h0 + h1 h1 - h0 æ x - x0 pö (2)
= + sin çç p - ÷÷ , x0 £ x £ x1
2 2 x -
è 1 0 x 2ø
= h1 , x ³ x1 .
The parameters m s , m k , vs and vd indicate static friction
coefficient, kinetic friction coefficient, static threshold veloc-
ity and kinetic threshold velocity, respectively. With the above
continuous function, the discontinuity could be removed.
However, due to the nature of the modified friction force
model, the stick cannot be reenacted.
Fig. 3 shows a friction force model that can reproduce the
stick phenomena using the concept of elastic deformation.
With this model, elastic deformation can be created by exter-
nal force before slip occurs. It is modeled as if a m-c-k system
exists during the state of stick. The friction coefficient is re-
lated to the stiffness ( k stick ) and damping constant ( cstick ) (see
Ref. [8]) as follows:
 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652
(a) Improved friction force model
(b) Stick and slip conditions
Fig. 3. Improved friction force model to realize stick and slip.
k stick xr + cstick vr
m ( xr , vr ) = , 0 £ vr £ vs
N
where xr is the relative displacement and N is the normal
force between two bodies in contact. The stiffness and damp-
ing constant can be obtained as follows:
ms N
k stick =
elim
cstick = 2z k stick m
where elim is the elastic deformation limit and z is the
damping ratio. The two values are defined by the modal char-
acteristics of the system at the stick state. When the relative
velocity exceeds a certain value v s , slip occurs. In that case,
the friction coefficient can be modeled with an exponential
function (see Ref. [8]) described as
m (vr ) = a - (v r + b)
+ mk , vr > vs
where a and b are related to m s and the decreasing slope
that can be measured experimentally.
In the friction force models explained so far, the parameters
such as m s and m k are presumed to be deterministic. How-
ever, as mentioned in the introduction, this is not actually true.
In the next section, the randomness of the parameters will be
discussed to introduce a new friction model.
2.2 Stochastic friction force model
2.2.1 Random number generation for friction coefficients
Fig. 4 shows the random characteristic of steel-brass friction
coefficient. This plot was originally obtained by Hinrichs et al.
[9]. It shows the mean and standard deviation of the friction
coefficient. As shown in the figure, the friction coefficient is
not deterministic. So the friction force should be modeled with
a stochastic function. If the result of Fig. 4 is given experimen-
3647
Fig. 4. Steel-brass friction coefficient data versus relative velocity (Sta-
tistical parameters: --- mean, --- standard deviation).
(3)
(a) Distributions of the friction coefficients for the deterministic model
(4)
(5)
(b) Distributions of the friction coefficients for the stochastic model
Fig. 5. Distributions of the static and kinetic friction coefficients for
the deterministic and stochastic friction models.
(6) tally, the distribution of static friction coefficient can be ob-
tained when the relative velocity approaches zero while that of
kinetic friction coefficient can be obtained when the relative
velocity becomes large enough. The distribution pattern in the
intermediate range is assumed to be same as that of the kinetic
friction coefficient.
A new friction force model that can represent the actual
characteristics of friction coefficients having uncertainty will
be introduced in this study. Fig. 5 shows the deterministic and
random friction coefficients employed for the deterministic
and stochastic friction model. Different from the deterministic
model where two fixed coefficients (Represented by two
lines) are used for the dynamic simulation, random numbers
are generated for the friction coefficients and used for the
dynamic simulation of a mechanical system undergoing fric-
tion force. To employ the stochastic friction model, one needs
the statistical parameters of the friction coefficients that can be
measured through experiment. Once the statistical parameters
of friction coefficients are obtained, one may obtain random
3648 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652
Fig. 6. Feasibility of obtaining unrealistic sets of friction coefficients.
(a) Original distributions of kinetic and static friction coefficients
(b) Generated distribution of kinetic friction coefficient
(c) Generated distribution of static friction coefficient
Fig. 7. Original and generated distributions of kinetic and static friction
coefficients.
numbers of the friction coefficients for the dynamic simulation.
When the mean value of static friction coefficient is close to
that of kinetic friction coefficient, the distribution of static
friction coefficient might be overlapped with that kinetic fric-
tion coefficient as shown in Fig. 6. When random numbers are
generated for the kinetic and static coefficients during the
numerical simulation, unrealistic sets of friction coefficients
can be generated. Since the kinetic friction coefficient should
be always smaller than the static friction coefficient, such
unrealistic sets of friction coefficients should be avoided. So if
Fig. 8. Flowchart for the time integration.
unrealistic sets of friction coefficients are generated, they
should be ignored and extra sets as many as the unrealistic sets
should be generated.
The original distributions of kinetic and static friction coef-
ficients are shown in Fig. 7(a). Avoiding unrealistic sets, dis-
tributions for the kinetic and static friction coefficients are
obtained in Figs. 7(b) and 7(c), respectively. As shown in Figs.
7(b) and 7(c), newly obtained distributions for the kinetic and
static friction coefficients are not smooth but they are almost
identical to the original ones.
2.2.2 Flowchart for the time integration employing the pro-
posed stochastic friction force model
Fig. 8 shows a flowchart for the time integration employing
the proposed stochastic friction force model. Before the inte-
gration starts, multiple feasible sets of static and kinetic fric-
tion coefficients should be obtained first using the random
number generator. The number of multiple feasible sets is
same as that of output time step plus one. Once the integration
starts, first two sets of static and kinetic friction coefficients
can be used to calculate the static and kinetic friction coeffi-
cients during the first out interval. Simple linear interpolation
rule is used for the calculation (see Fig. 9). Once the integra-
tion is finished for the first step, the same procedure can be
repeated for the next output time step. This procedure will be
repeated until the last output time step. Since only simple lin-
ear interpolation is additionally required for the proposed sto-
chastic friction model, the computational cost is only slightly
larger than that of the deterministic friction model.
Fig. 9 illustrates the method to determine the stochastic fric-
tion coefficients during the time integration. Stochastic fric-
tion coefficients (▲) are obtained for each output time (◆).
 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652
Fig. 9. Method of determining stochastic friction coefficients during
the time integration.
Fig. 10. One degree of freedom friction oscillator model.
Then friction coefficients at any time (●) can be obtained us-
ing the interpolation rule. In other words, friction coefficients
vary linearly along the time interval between two output times.
3. Integrity of the proposed friction model
3.1 Description of the friction oscillator
Fig. 10 shows a friction oscillator by which the friction-
induced vibration phenomena can be reenacted. In the system,
a box having mass m stays on a belt that moves with a con-
stant speed vb . An external motion is prescribed to the box
through a damper having damping constant c and a spring
having stiffness k . The displacement of the box is denoted
as x(t ) , the normal force is denoted as N and the prescribed
displacement is given as u (t ) = u0 cos Wt . This system vibrates
due to the friction force which occurs between the moving belt
and the box. If the belt and box are moving with the same
speed, the static friction force acts on the two bodies. If the
force generated by the spring and damper is greater than the
maximum static friction force, slip occurs. In this case, the
relative velocity between two bodies creates the kinetic fric-
tion force. The equation of motion of the friction oscillator can
be described as follows:
mx&&(t ) + cx& (t ) + kx(t ) = FR (vr ) + ku0 cos Wt
3649
(a) Output time step of 0.01
(b) Output time step of 0.001
(c) Output time step of 0.0001
Fig. 11. Response distributions at t = 2 seconds obtained with differ-
ent output time steps.
where FR ( vr ) is the friction force occurring between the belt
and the box and vr is the relative velocity between the belt and
box. They can be obtained as follows:
FR (vr ) = m (vr ) N (8)
vr = vb - x& (t ) . (9)
Two types of external motion are prescribed for the spring.
No external motion is given for the first type and external
motion with two different excitation frequencies is given for
the second type. Data of the friction oscillator employing
two types of prescribed external motion are given in Tables
1 and 2.
Numerical simulations were carried out for the friction os-
cillator with no prescribed motion with output time intervals
0.01 second, 0.001 second and 0.0001 second, respectively.
For each output time interval, 100 samples were taken to
(7) compare the response distributions. As shown in Figs. 11 and
3650 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652

Table 1. Data of the friction oscillator with no prescribed motion.

Parameter Value Parameter Value

m(kg) 6.08 c(Ns/ m) 0.768
k (N/m) 3956 N (N) 13
u0 (mm) 0 W(rad/ s) 0
ms 0.8 ss 0.015
mk 0.46 sk 0.023
vb (mm/ s) 2.5

(a) Output time step of 0.01

Table 2. Data of the friction oscillator with prescribed motion.

Parameter Value Parameter Value

m(kg) 5.632 c(Ns/ m) 0.768
k (N/m) 5610 N (N) 14
u0 (mm) 0.5 W(rad/ s) 13.8, 18.7
ms 0.8 ss 0.015
mk 0.55 sk 0.023
vb (mm/ s) 1.0

(b) Output time step of 0.001

(a) Experimental result

(c) Output time step of 0.0001

Fig. 12. Response distributions at t = 10 seconds obtained with differ-

ent output time steps.

12, velocity distributions at the same moment are almost iden-

tical regardless of the output time interval employed for the
simulation. These results show that simulation results obtained
with the proposed model are rarely influenced by output time
interval.
Experimental results obtained in Ref. [9] are compared with (b) Simulation result with deterministic friction coefficients
simulation results obtained with deterministic and stochastic
friction coefficients. The standard deviation of the static fric-
tion coefficient is given in Ref. [9] while that of the kinetic
friction coefficient is not. According to the experimental re-
sults given in Ref. [10], the standard deviation of kinetic fric-
tion coefficient is approximately two times larger than that of
static friction coefficient. So, the standard deviations of the
kinetic friction coefficient employed for the numerical simula-
tion are given as approximately 5% of the mean value of the
kinetic friction coefficient in this study. Since the mean and
(c) Simulation result with stochastic friction coefficients
standard deviation are given in Tables 1 and 2, the distribution
patterns of the friction coefficients are assumed to be normal Fig. 13. Experimental and simulation results obtained with no pre-
in this case study. scribed external motion.
 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652
(a) Experimental result
(b) Simulation result with deterministic friction coefficients
(c) Simulation result with stochastic friction coefficients
Fig. 14. Experimental and simulation results obtained with prescribed
external motion (u0 = 0.5 mm, W =13.8 rad/s).
3.2 Comparison of experimental and simulation results
Fig. 13 shows the experimental and simulation results ob-
tained with no external prescribed motion while Figs. 14 and
15 show the experimental and simulation results obtained with
external prescribed motion. The excitation frequencies of the
external motion for Figs. 14 and 15 are 13.8 rad/s and
18.7 rad/s , respectively. The statistical parameters of the
static and kinetic friction coefficients shown in Table 1 and
Table 2 are employed to obtain the simulation results. The
normal distribution pattern is assumed for the distributions of
the friction coefficients. Figs. 13-15 show that dynamic re-
sponses obtained with the stochastic model spread out widely
compared to those of the deterministic model. It is also shown
that the results obtained with the stochastic model match rela-
tively well with the experimental results.
4. Conclusions
All the friction models introduced so far employ only de-
3651
(a) Experimental result
(b) Simulation result with deterministic friction coefficients
(c) Simulation result with stochastic friction coefficients
Fig. 15. Experimental and simulation results obtained with prescribed
external motion (u0 = 0.5 mm, W =18.7 rad/s).
terministic friction coefficients. However, due to the uneven-
ness of contact surface, temperature, lubrication and humidity,
the friction coefficients between two bodies in contact vary
continuously. Therefore, the friction coefficients should be
modeled as stochastic parameters rather than deterministic
parameters. A new friction force model employing stochastic
friction coefficients is proposed in this study. For the proposed
friction model, distributions of friction coefficients are first
obtained experimentally. Then random numbers for the fric-
tion coefficients are generated using the friction coefficient
distributions and used for the numerical simulation. Generated
random numbers of the friction coefficients are assigned at
each output time step and they are interpolated to obtain the
friction coefficients during the numerical integration. So the
proposed model is computationally very efficient. It is also
shown to provide reasonably accurate numerical results com-
pared to experimental results. The comparison study also
shows that the stochastic friction model provides qualitatively
better simulation results than the deterministic model does.
Even though the proposed model provides a good simula-
3652 W. S. Kang et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 29 (9) (2015) 3645~3652
tion results for the friction oscillator example, it is not good
enough to guarantee the integrity of the proposed model. The
integrity of the proposed model should be continuously inves-
tigated using more test examples in the future. To employ the
proposed model, one needs to obtain the statistical parameters
of the friction coefficients which are not easy to obtain ex-
perimentally. Such limitations of the proposed model should
be overcome through the future study.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Research
Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Educa-
tion, Science and Technology(MEST) of Korea(Grant num-
ber: NRF-2015R1A2A2A01003422).
References
[1] C. A. Coulomb, Theorie des machines simples, en ayant
egard au frottement de leurs parties et a la roideur dews
cordages, Mem. Math Phys. X (1785) 161-342.
[2] R. A. Ibrahim, Friction-induced vibration, chatter, squeal,
and chaos part II: dynamics and modelling, Applied Mechan-
ics Reviews, 47 (7) (1994) 227-253.
[3] D. Karnopp, Computer simulation of stick-slip friction in
mechanical dynamic systems, Journal of Dynamic Systems,
Measurement and Control, 107 (1) (1985) 100-103.
[4] F. A. Tariku and R. J. Rogers, Improved dynamics friction
models for simulation of one-dimensional and two-dimen-
sional stick-slip motion, Journal of Tribology, 123 (4)
(2000) 661-669.
[5] P. Song, P. Krauss, V. Kumar and P. Dupont, Analysis of
rigid-body dynamic models for simulation of systems with
friction contacts, Journal of Applied Mechanics, 68 (1)
(2000) 118-128.
[6] DADS manual (Version 9.6) (2000).
[7] RecurDyn manual (Version 6.2) (2005).
[8] C. K. Choi and H. H. Yoo, A dry friction model to realize
stick for simulation of the system with friction and accuracy
verification of the friction model, Transactions of the Ko-
rean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering, 22 (8)
(2012) 748-755.
[9] N. Hinrichs, M. Oestreich and K. Popp, On the modelling of
friction oscillators, Journal of Sound Vibration, 216 (3)
(1998) 435-459.
[10] H. D. Espinosa, A. Patanella and M. Fischer, A novel dy-
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Won Seok Kang received his B.S. de-
gree in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering in Wonkwang University,
Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, Korea in 2012, and
his M.S. in Mechanical Convergence
Engineering from Hanyang University,
Seoul, Korea. His research interests
include vibration and friction.
Chan Kyu Choi received his B.S. de-
grees in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering in Hanyang University,
Seoul, Korea in 2008. He is working as
a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering in Hanyang
University, Seoul, Korea. His research
interests include multi-body dynamics
and uncertainty quantification in mechanics.
Hong Hee Yoo received his B.S. and
M.S. degrees in the Department of Me-
chanical Design in Seoul National Uni-
versity in 1980 and 1982 and his Ph.D.
degree from the Department of Me-
chanical Engineering and Applied Me-
chanics, University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor in 1989. He is a professor in Me-
chanical Engineering at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
His research interests include multi-body dynamics, structural
vibration, and uncertainty quantification in mechanics.