Stiffness identification of an impacted constraint via analysis of the impact duration is proposed.
Nonlinear time series analysis and tangent vector analysis are applied to detect the impact durations from dynamical signals.
The analytical prediction of the impact duration for a stable period-one one-impact motion is developed.
.The explored monotonic stiffness-impact duration correlation is used to estimate the stiffness of the impacted constraint according to the detected impact duration.