Electroelastic model of dry friction: Macroscopic approach

Abstract

It has been shown that the term that describes viscous friction in the standard Prandtl–Tomlinson model and is traditionally introduced artificially can be obtained naturally when the electrification of contact surfaces of dielectrics and conductors is taken into account. The obtained system of nonlinear equations of the Prandtl–Tomlinson model in which electrification is considered has a complex phase space with modes like dynamic chaos, attractors, etc. It has been found that the consideration of electrification leads to the vanishing of the cardinal difference between the traditional modes of movement in the Prandtl–Tomlinson model, namely, the stick–slip mode and the superlubricity mode. Analytical solutions have been obtained for elastically stable movement. It has been shown that the electrophysical characteristics of a friction pair can serve as control parameters for choosing the mode of friction.