The Tribology of Sliding Elastic Media

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complex frictional behavior of elastic materials sliding over disordered surfaces, revealing a depinning transition and stick-slip dynamics through analytical and numerical modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a bead-spring model to analyze the tribology of elastic media and maps the problem to directed paths in higher-dimensional random media, providing new insights.

Findings

Depinning transition at finite driving force

Complex stick-slip dynamics observed

Analytical and numerical agreement with directed path problem

Abstract

The tribology of a sliding elastic continuum in contact with a disordered substrate is investigated analytically and numerically via a bead-spring model. The deterministic dynamics of this system exhibits a depinning transition at a finite driving force, with complex spatial-temporal dynamics including stick-slip events of all sizes. These behaviors can be understood completely by mapping the system to the well-known problem of a directed-path in {\em higher-dimensional } random media.