Abstract
A procedure is presented for calculating the magnitude and shape of impact pulses in a vibro-impact system when an arbitrary input force is applied to a point in the system. The procedure utilizes the condition that the displacements of two contacting point in the primary and secondary system are the same during a contacting period. The displacements of those points are calculated numerically through the convolution integral which involve the impulse response functions and applied forces. The validity of the calculation procedure is demonstrated by using it to calculated the impact forces of a simple system where a theoretical solution is known and also of systems for which other researchers have published results. The agreement between the results derived by the numerical method and the theoretical and also some published results is good.