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Updated: May 26, 2026

Development of an Experimental Setup for the Measurement of the Coefficient of Restitution under Vacuum Conditions
Published on: March 29, 2016
Coefficient of restitution as a fluctuating quantity
Marina Montaine1, Michael Heckel, Christof Kruelle
1Institute for Multiscale Simulation, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
The coefficient of restitution of a spherical particle in contact with a flat plate is investigated as a function of the impact velocity. As an experimental observation we notice nontrivial (non-Gaussian) fluctuations of the measured values. For a fixed impact velocity, the probability density of the coefficient of restitution, p(ɛ), is formed by two exponential functions (one increasing, one decreasing) of different slope. This behavior may be explained by a certain roughness of the particle which leads to energy transfer between the linear and rotational degrees of freedom.
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