Eur. Phys. J. E (2007) 23: 439-444
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10215-3

Regular Article

Naive model for stick-slip processes

¹ Centre de Recherche, CNRS UMR 168 - Université Paris 6, Institut Curie, F-75231, Paris Cedex 05, France
² Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, F-75005, Paris, France

^* e-mail: francoise.brochard@curie.fr

Received: 12 February 2007
Accepted: 2 August 2007
Published online: 7 September 2007

Abstract

This paper is a tutorial description of stick-slip in soft materials (rubber beads, gels) where inertial effects are negligible. A typical example is a rubber sphere, pressed against a glass surface (JKR contact). The sphere is driven from the top at a prescribed velocity U (∼ 100 μm/s). At moderate U (and with suitable surface treatment) a periodic stick-slip regime is often observed. We present a simple picture of the stick-slip cycle, describing the growth of a slip zone from the rear end of the sample, and the resulting plot of force vs. time. All our estimates are restricted to scaling laws.