Experimental observations of stick-slip instability: discussion and comparison with numerical results on contact wave and rupture propagation.

Davide Tonazzi (1) , Mariano Di Bartolomeo (2) , Francesco Massi (2) , Laurent Baillet (3) , Annalisa Fregolent (4) , Antonio Culla (4) , Edouard Regis (1)

1 LaMCoS - Laboratoire de Mécanique des Contacts et des Structures [Villeurbanne]
2 TMI - Tribologie et Mécanique des Interfaces
3 Risques - Risques
4 Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering

This paper presents a comparison between numerical results, obtained by transient finite element simulations able to reproduce contact dynamics, and experimental observations of global contact behavior in a laboratory set-up. The explicit finite element code PLASTD has been used to perform numerical transient analysis of two elastic bodies during sliding evolution. On the other hand an experimental set-up has been utilized to investigate the frictional macroscopic behavior of two blocks of polycarbonate in relative motion. Time evolution of global contact forces has been investigated and stick-slip regime and its transition to continuous sliding in function of system parameters has been observed. The frequency and time analysis of experimentally stick-slip phenomena exhibit good agreement with numerical results obtained through transient contact simulations. While the numerical simulations allow for the understanding of the physical phenomena and investigating the coupling between local and global dynamics, the experimental results allow for validating the numerical simulations.

Davide Tonazzi, Mariano Di Bartolomeo, Francesco Massi, Laurent Baillet, Annalisa Fregolent, et al.. Experimental observations of stick-slip instability: discussion and comparison with numerical results on contact wave and rupture propagation.. XXI CONGRESSO ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA DI MECCANICA TEORICA E APPLICATA, Sep 2013, Turin, Italy. ⟨hal-00867056⟩