Travelling interface waves in a brake-like system under unilateral contact and Coulomb friction

This article considers the frictional interface waves generated by the flutter instability of the sliding steady state for an elastic tube in frictional contact with a rigid and rotating shaft. According to the values of the contact pressure, the rotation velocity and the friction coefficient, several periodic dynamical responses can be found under the form of travelling surface waves. Such a periodic solution may be interesting in the study of a possible dynamic transition from the sliding steady state in the spirit of Andronov-Hopf bifurcation. Examples of stick-slip, stick-slip-separation and stick-slip-separation-reverse-slip waves propagating along the contact surface, obtained by various semi-analytical and numerical approaches, are reported here. Some results on the stability of these travelling waves are also indicated.