Long term friction: From stick‐slip to stable sliding

Abstract

We have devised an original laboratory experiment where we investigate the frictional behaviour of a single crystal salt slider over a large number of deformation cycles. Because of its physical properties, salt, an analogue for natural faults, allows for frictional processes plastic deformation and pressure solution creep to operate on the same timescale. During the same experiment, we observe a continuous change of the frictional behaviour of the slider under constant conditions of stiffness, temperature and loading velocity. The stick‐slip regime is progressively vanishing, eventually reaching the stable sliding regime. Concomitantly, the contact interface, observed under the microscope, develops a striated morphology with contact asperities increase in length and width, arguing for an increase in the critical slip distance dc. Complementary experiments including velocity jumps show that the frictional parameters of the rate and state friction law, a and b, progressively vanish with accumulated slip. The ultimate stage of friction is therefore rate and state independent under our experimental conditions.