Driven dynamics of simplified tribological models

Abstract

Over the last decade, remarkable developments in nanotechnology, notably the use ofatomic and friction force microscopes (AFM/FFM), the surface-force apparatus (SFA) andthe quartz-crystal microbalance (QCM), have provided the possibility to buildexperimental devices able to perform analysis on well-characterized materials at thenano- and microscale. Simultaneously, tremendous advances in computing hardware andmethodology (molecular dynamics techniques and ab initio calculations) have dramaticallyincreased the ability of theoreticians to simulate tribological processes, supplying verydetailed information on the atomic scale for realistic sliding systems. This acceleration inexperiments and computations, leading often to very detailed yet complex data, has deeplystimulated the search, rediscovery and implementation of simpler mathematical modelssuch as the generalized Frenkel–Kontorova and Tomlinson models, capable of describingand interpreting, in a more immediate way, the essential physics involved in nonlinearsliding phenomena.