Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the damping behavior of a flexible joint. The slip at a structrual joint is selected at the tips of two identical cantilever beams adjoining each other. Both the direction of normal force and its magnitude varies due to the global deformation of the structure from mode to mode in the friction model. The friction dependent on vibration displacements resultsin the same functional behavior of the hysteretic material damping. Linearized energy loss factors are obtained as functions of both linear and torsional spring stiffness for their groups of symmetric and anti-symmetric modes, respectively. Experimental measurements as made for comparisons with analytical estimations by controlling the magnitude of fastening torque in the fastener, Hi-Lite. Trends on damping levelsmeasured in a very common vibration test method make an excellent agreement on the estimated damping levels.