Characteristics of Stick Regions in Frictional Vibration with a Compressed Nonlinear Spring

In-plane characteristics of a single degree of freedom frictional system with a compressed spring are considered. The compressed spring is vertically installed to the mass moving horizontally along the friction interface. The compressed spring can introduce a nonlinear negative stiffness into the in-plane motion. The resulting system has a multiple equilibrium points; an unstable point at the center and two stable points on either side. It is shown that two stable equilibrium points can be separated far apart by increasing the compression ratio and the stiffness of the spring. The friction system is often characterized by stick and slip motions that cause unfavorable effects such as wear, noise, and chatter etc. It is demonstrated that increasing the compression ratio and the stiffness of the spring results in decreasing the size of the stick regions.