Influence of forced vibrations on the static coefficient of friction — numerical modeling

Abstract Various experimental observations reveal that forced vibrations of a sliding system result in a reduction of the static coefficient of friction. In this paper this phenomenon is modeled numerically. A recently developed model of frictional interface, assuming the existence of non-linear normal compliance of the interface, is applied to the transient analysis of vibrations of the system. This analysis reveals that in the presence of vibrations the sliding occurs at a value of tangential force smaller than in the purely static case. However, the tangential motion of the slider consists of microscopic sticks and slips, which in the macroscopic scale are perceived as a “creep”-type motion. It was also observed that the presence of interface damping weakens the effect of reduction of the coefficient of friction, especially in the vicinity of a resonance zone. The formulation and numerical algorithm developed in this paper are applied to the analysis of a representative experimental apparatus. A good qualitative and quantitative agreement of results is obtained.