Abstract
Variable power transmission in mechanical systems is often achieved by devices, e.g., clutches and brakes, that use dry friction. In these systems, the variability in power transmission is brought about by engaging and disengaging the friction plates. Though commonly used, this method of making the coupling noisy is not as versatile as their electrical analog. An alternative method would be to intermittently vary the frictional force. In this paper, we demonstrate a self-organized way to tune the noise in the frictional coupling between two surfaces which are in relative motion with each other. This is achieved by exploiting the complexity that arises from the frictional interaction of the balls which are placed in a circular groove between the surfaces. The extent of floppiness in the coupling is related to the rate at which the balls make transitions between their rolling and sliding states. If the moving surface is soft and the static surface is hard we show that with increasing filling fraction of the balls the transitions between rolling and sliding against the static surface give way to the transitions between rolling and sliding against the moving surface. As a consequence, the noise in the coupling is large for both small and large filling fraction with a dip in the middle. In contrast, the sliding with the static surface is suppressed if the moving pate is hard and the noise in the coupling decreases monotonically with the filling fraction of the balls.
Highlights
Dry friction is commonly used as a coupling mechanism to transmit power in mechanical systems
In the experiments reported here, we show ways in which the complexity that arises from the third body frictional interactions of balls sandwiched between two surfaces can be harnessed in order to tune the noise in the frictional coupling
The coupling between the top and the bottom plate which strongly depends on the dynamics of the balls is measured in terms of the spread in the coefficient of friction
Summary
Dry friction is commonly used as a coupling mechanism to transmit power in mechanical systems. The coupling between the top and the bottom plate which strongly depends on the dynamics of the balls is measured in terms of the spread in the coefficient of friction. At a small filling fraction each ball exhibits periodic rolling and sliding against the hard plate.
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