Investigation of friction statistics and real contact area by means of a modified OFC model

•A modified OFC model is developed to study sliding with partial contact.•The effect of real contact area on local slip behavior is investigated.•Friction force statistics may be used to determine the number of contact regions.•A means of determining the real contact area of sliding bodies is suggested.

The frictional interactions of two bodies sliding pass each other is modeled using a modification of the Olami, Feder, Christensen (OFC) spring-block model. The major modification is based on relaxing the assumption of global driving, whereby one can simulate cases of partial contact. The effect of real contact area on several statistical measures of the sliding process is investigated. Scale-independent behavior is observed in the slip sequence size distribution, similar to OFC results, but with a different functional form. Additionally, it is found that the mean and standard deviation of the friction force may be used to determine the number of contact regions as well as a local (asperity-level) friction coefficient.

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