Load identification for a rolling disc: finite element discretization and virtual calibration

For many applications, direct measurement of forces in mechanical systems is difficult or even impossible, and indirect measurement involving inverse analysis must be adopted. One such application of major industrial relevance is the accurate measurement of contact forces acting on rolling bodies. In this paper, a newly proposed strategy for load identification is applied to an example problem of a rolling disc. Based on strain gauge measurements, the contact force is estimated using finite element analysis. A virtual calibration procedure is introduced in order to reduce the dependency of the results on the spatial discretization. In particular, the sensitivity of the results with respect to finite element discretization, sensor placement and noise is discussed. Numerical results based on synthetic data illustrate the behavior and accuracy of the proposed strategy.