An analytical study of time-delayed control of friction-induced vibrations in a system with a dynamic friction model

• Control of friction-induced vibrations in a system with hysteretic friction.
• Method of multiple scales for system of delay differential equations.
• Time-delayed position feedback is effective in quenching vibrations for all speeds.
• Linear controller with appropriate direction achieves control of the nature of bifurcations.

We investigate the control of friction-induced vibrations in a system with a dynamic friction model which accounts for hysteresis in the friction characteristics. Linear time-delayed position feedback applied in a direction normal to the contacting surfaces has been employed for the purpose. Analysis shows that the uncontrolled system loses stability via. a subcritical Hopf bifurcation making it prone to large amplitude vibrations near the stability boundary. Our results show that the controller achieves the dual objective of quenching the vibrations as well as changing the nature of the bifurcation from subcritical to supercritical. Consequently, the controlled system is globally stable in the linearly stable region and yields small amplitude vibrations if the stability boundary is crossed due to changes in operating conditions or system parameters. Criticality curve separating regions on the stability surface corresponding to subcritical and supercritical bifurcations is obtained analytically using the method of multiple scales (MMS). We have also identified a set of control parameters for which the system is stable for lower and higher relative velocities but vibrates for the intermediate ones. However, the bifurcation is always supercritical for these parameters resulting in low amplitude vibrations only.