The source of repeating earthquakes on creeping faults is modeled as a weak asperity at a border between much larger locked and creeping patches on the fault plane. The x−1 2 / decrease in stress concentration with distance x from the boundary is shown to lead directly to the observed scaling T M ∝ 0 1 6 / between the average repeat time and average scalar moment for a repeating sequence. The s...

We present a series of molecular dynamics simulations of single asperity contact and deformation that occurs as two rough surfaces are brought together, loaded and then separated. We monitor the force between the two surfaces, the total potential energy, the Q6 order parameter, the effective minimum contact radius and the conductance (using the modified Sharvin equation). The deformation is obs...

Modelling of the contact between moving rough surfaces allows a better understanding of friction and wear mechanisms, which can be used in engineering solutions. This issue has been examined using a number of approaches. The statistical type of a contact model is still the most popularmodel used in rough surfaces contact.This statement does not mean that it is the best solution of contact rough...

The 1896 Sanriku earthquake was a typical ‘tsunami earthquake’ which caused large tsunami despite its weak ground shaking. It occurred along the Japan Trench in the northern tsunami source area of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake where a delayed tsunami generation has been proposed. Hence the relation between the 1896 and 2011 tsunami sources is an important scientific as well as societal issue. The ...

[1] We investigate the rupture process of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake using extensive near-source observations, including three-component velocity waveforms at 36 strong motion stations and 119 GPS measurements. A three-plane fault geometry derived from our previous inversion using only static data [Ji et al., 2001] is applied. The slip amplitude, rake angle, rupture initiation time, a...

A three-dimensional thermo-mechanical model is developed for the transient contact between a thermal flying height control (TFC) slider and a disk asperity. The effect of contact conditions is investigated, including the friction coefficient and the circumferential disk velocity. The damage of the read–write shields due to contacts with disk asperities is studied along with the maximum temperat...

In this investigation three effects are included in a recently developed scale-dependent multi-asperity model of elastic contact and friction. First, a Weibull distribution of asperity heights is used, which allows the skew and kurtosis to be varied, but not independently of each other. Second, the effect of non-constant radii of curvature of the asperity summits, with the curvature varying wit...

We report on the successful realization of a contactless, non-perturbing, displacement-measuring system for characterizing the surface roughness of polymer materials used in tribological applications. A single, time-dependent, scalar value, dubbed the collective micro-asperity deformation, is extracted from the normal-displacement measurements of normally loaded polymer samples. The displacemen...