A modified Kelvin-Voigt Model to simulate the collision of bodies

The effective simulation of collision between two adjacent structures has always been of interest in structural engineering. Several analytical models have been proposed by different scholars to simulate this phenomenon. The Kelvin-Voigt Model is one of the popular ones due to its linearity, and ease of application. In this study, a parameter (coefficient α) is introduced in the original Kelvin-Voigt Model to calculate the energy dissipation both in compression and restitution (separation) phases of the contact. Besides, the accuracy of the modified model has been improved by presenting a new equation for the estimation of damped energy. Furthermore, the tensile force is eliminated in the restitution phase. The effectiveness of the proposed modified model in the simulation of the collision was examined by comparing the results with those of the original model, as well as previous experimental studies. The mean relative error between the selected coefficient of restitution before the collision and the coefficient of restitution after the collision that was evaluated by different models were compared. The modified model proposed in this study showed the least error values among all of the other models. This indicated the ability of the model to estimate the damped energy with better accuracy. The results of this research study indicate that the proposed modified Kelvin-Voight Model is effective in the simulation of collision between two structures.