Identification of dynamic characteristics of nonlinear joint based on the optimum equivalent linear frequency response function

Identification of dynamic characteristics of local nonlinearities has been aimed in this paper. The spirit of the identification method is established on Optimum Equivalent Linear Frequency response function (OELF). Dynamic behavior of nonlinear elements in system is extracted from OELF using two different techniques. The first technique is “Direct Identification Method” (DIM) in which no pre-assumed model is considered for the nonlinearity's behavior and the second technique is “Model based Identification Method” (MIM). The second technique is introduced with two different formulations, in order to take into account the practical limits due to the inaccessibility of nonlinearity location and/or indeterminability of degree of freedom. Dynamic characteristics of common nonlinearity mechanisms like cubic stiffness, pure slip, and stick-slip have been identified using the proposed technique and it has been shown that, although the proposed identification technique is simple, it does not require any sophisticated measurement hardwares and techniques, as required by most of the identification methods proposed so far. Also, the relation of this technique to harmonic balance method is discussed.