Add to ORKGFriction is frequently seen as an unwanted phenomenon whose influence has to be either minimised or controlled. In this work one of the positive sides of friction is investigated: friction damping. Friction dampers can be a cheap and efficient way to reduce the vibration levels of a wide range of mechanical systems. Here the energy dissipated through friction is analysed for a type of friction dampers used to reduce squeal noise from railway wheels. Three different 1DOF systems of increasing complexity are analytically studied and simple non-dimensional expressions are derived for the optimal friction force and energy dissipation. In this way the influence of the mass, natural frequency and internal damping of the friction damper on the ene...