The dynamic response and energy dissipation characteristic at rough contact interface are of great importance to the interface dynamic mechanism. In this paper, the vertical contact vibration model for rough interface is proposed and the corresponding calculation method is presented to study the contact dynamic responses and energy dissipation at rough contact interface. Results of contact force and deformation are obtained using the finite element method and are presented for contacting surface with varying topographies. Expression relating the contact force and the deformation is established and good correlation with calculated results is obtained and compared with that for the Hertz contact law. The dynamic motion equation is further established and the dynamic response quantities and energy dissipation characteristics for contacting interface with different surface topographies are determined. The obtained results explain theoretically the experimental results on energy dissipation observed for vertical contact vibration.