On the chaotic behaviour of a simple dry-friction oscillator

In this paper we investigate an early and yet simple model used for the analysis of mechanical systems incorporating Coulomb-type friction. We show an interesting non-smooth bifurcation of the crossing-sliding type that causes symmetry breaking. In its simplicity it was not obvious for a long time to find chaos in the simple one degree-of-freedom sliding block model with dry-friction. With the introduction of static coefficient of friction besides the dynamic one we found chaotic bands over a wide range of parameters. In this work we also highlight the possibility of transient chaos for a narrow range of parameters.