THERMAL-DIFFUSION INSTABILITY OF THE FRICTIONAL CONTACT OF ELASTIC BODIES

We investigate the thermal-diffusion instability of the frictional contact of two half spaces with heat release. It is assumed that one of these spaces is an elastic heat-conducting binary solid solution, while the other is rigid and does not transfer heat or mass. By investigating the behavior of small surface perturbations of the concentration of the dissolved component, we found the critical sliding velocity beyond which perturbations exhibit a tendency to increase. It is shown that thermal diffusion is responsible for the instability of the contact, while diffusion induced by concentration gradients inhibits this process.