Using Fast Vibrations to Quench Friction-induced Oscillations

This work examines how friction-induced self-excited oscillations are affected by high-frequency ex-ternal excitation. Simple analytical approximations are derived for predicting the occurence of self-excited oscillations for the traditional mass-on-moving-belt model – with and without high-frequency excitation. It appears that high-frequency excitation can effectively cancel the negative slope in the friction-velocity relationship, and may thus prevent self-excited oscillations. To accomplish this it is sufficient that the (nondimensional) product of excitation amplitude and frequency exceeds the veloc-ity corresponding to the minimum kinetic coefficient of friction. Simple expressions are given also for predicting the excitation necessary for quenching self-excited oscillations at or below a specified belt velocity. These and other results contribute to the general understanding of how friction properties may change under the action of fast vibrations.