ORIGIN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF DIFFERENT STICK-SLIP FRICTION MECHANISMS

Mechanical parts often move, not smoothly, but in jerks known as stick -slip. Stick-slip motion may be regular (repetitive or periodic) or ir regular (erratic or intermittent). In the case of frictional sliding, stick-slip can have serious and often undesirable consequences-resulti ng in noise (chatter), high energy loss (friction), surface damage (we ar), and component failure. We review the origins of stick-slip fricti on and present new experimental results on model surfaces that clarify its different origins, its dependence on experimental conditions or ' 'system parameters'', and how stick-slip can be controlled in practica l situations.