Slip pulses at a sheared frictional viscoelastic/nondeformable interface

Area of Science:

• Solid mechanics
• Tribology
• Materials science

Background:

• Investigating frictional sliding dynamics in viscoelastic materials.
• Understanding the phenomenon of
• self-healing pulses
• in shear sliding.
• Analyzing homogeneous frictional contact between a semi-infinite viscoelastic block and a nondeformable surface.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the feasibility of self-healing pulse dynamics in viscoelastic materials under shear.
• To assess the validity of a simple local Coulomb friction law for this sliding mode.
• To explore potential friction model enhancements that could enable such dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical analysis of a semi-infinite linear viscoelastic material in frictional contact.
• Modeling shear sliding via periodic self-healing pulses (drifting slip regions).
• Evaluating the implications of a local Coulomb friction law.

Main Results:

• The study demonstrates that self-healing pulse sliding is not possible with a simple local Coulomb friction law.
• This finding contradicts some existing experimental observations.
• The research highlights limitations of basic friction models in capturing complex sliding behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Simple Coulomb friction models are insufficient to explain self-healing pulse dynamics in viscoelastic shear sliding.
• Physical refinements to friction models, such as slip weakening, may be necessary.
• Further systematic experimental investigations are crucial to understand this phenomenon.