Dry friction: influence of the position of the center of mass on the static friction coeffient and the acoustic emission energy distribution

Abstract

An experimental study of the dry friction of an aluminum block driven at constant velocity on sandpaper is presented. We have measured the behavior of the pulling force and the generated acoustic emission signals. The goal is to investigate what is the influence of the variation of the position of the center of mass of the block. The results reveal that friction is bigger when the center of mass of the block is closer to the pulling point, although no significant changes have been found on the properties of the acoustic emission. A possible theoretical model for the understanding of the observed dependence of friction with the position of the center of mass is discussed