Interaction between systems and materials in fretting

Most fretting studies analyze material׳s responses using criteria directly issued from characteristic parameters of the fretting loops (loop aperture, dissipated energy, contact stiffness…). The present study concerns the influence of the device, first element of the tribological triplet, on the gross slip response of a ball-on-flat contact. The role of the static and dynamic device stiffness (vibratory analysis), of the control system mode (imposed displacement or imposed actuator force) and of the material type (ductile or brittle) on the loop shape is analyzed in order to distinguish the respective contributions of devices and materials.