Eur. Phys. J. E (2006) 19: 31-36
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/e2006-00013-8

Regular Articles

Motions induced by asymmetric vibrations

The solid/solid case

Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248, Paris Cedex 05, France

^* e-mail: ppg@curie.fr

Received: 29 September 2005
Published online: 31 January 2006

Abstract

We discuss theoretically the motions of a coin on a horizontally vibrating plate, with dry friction between the coin and the plate. As first noticed by Daniel and Chaudhury in a different situation (droplets on a plate), when the periodic acceleration γ(t) imposed by the plate is unsymmetrical, the coin can move macroscopically with a certain drift velocity . We analyse here: (a) the vibration threshold below which , and the generic behavior expected just above threshold; (b) the limiting behavior at very high amplitudes, where should become independent of the amplitude; (c) the complications due to small, macroscopic inhomogeneities on the supporting plate.