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Solid friction : heterogeneities and rupture arrest.
What happens at the interface between two solid bodies in contact when they start sliding ? This problem has important implications to various fields such as engineering, where the challenge is to control friction, or earthquake dynamics, where prediction of earthquakes occurrence and magnitude is crucial.
Experimentally, the transition from static to sliding friction takes place when a rupture traverses the entire interface. But ruptures can also arrest before reaching the end of the interface. The determination of the mechanisms responsible for rupture arrest is of particular interest for understanding an earthquake’s magnitude selection. Propagating ruptures have been shown to be true shear cracks, driven by singular fields at their tip. We demonstrate – based on friction experiments – that an arrest criterion derived from fracture mechanics theory is valid to determine if and where a rupture will arrest. The impact of these results on earthquakes dynamics will be discussed.