Slow rupture of frictional interfaces

Abstract

[1] The failure of frictional interfaces and the spatiotemporal structures that accompany it are central to a wide range of geophysical, physical and engineering systems. Recent geophysical and laboratory observations indicated that interfacial failure can be mediated by slow slip rupture phenomena which are distinct from ordinary, earthquakelike, fast rupture. These discoveries have influenced the way we think about frictional motion, yet the nature and properties of slow rupture are not completely understood. We show that slow rupture is an intrinsic and robust property of simple non-monotonic rate-and-state friction laws. It is associated with a new velocity scale c min , determined by the friction law, below which steady state rupture cannot propagate. We further show that rupture can occur in a continuum of states, spanning a wide range of velocities from c min to elastic wave-speeds, and predict different properties for slow rupture and ordinary fast rupture. Our results are qualitatively consistent with recent high-resolution laboratory experiments and may provide a theoretical framework for understanding slow rupture phenomena along frictional interfaces.

Instabilities at frictional interfaces: Creep patches, nucleation, and rupture fronts

“…In particular, frictional instabilities that mark the transition from creep-like motion to rapid slip and a variety of emerging rupture fronts have been observed. Quantitatively understanding these complex dynamics and their dependence on geometry, external forcing, system's history and constitutive behavior of the frictional interface remains an important challenge.In this Letter we present a theoretical analysis of a simple, yet realistic, quasi-1D rate-and-state model [34,35] in which friction is velocity-weakening at low slip velocities and crosses over to velocity-strengthening at higher velocities [36][37][38]. Using combined analytic and numeric tools we elucidate the physics of a sequence of instabilities at a frictional interface.…”

“…In this Letter we present a theoretical analysis of a simple, yet realistic, quasi-1D rate-and-state model [34,35] in which friction is velocity-weakening at low slip velocities and crosses over to velocity-strengthening at higher velocities [36][37][38]. Using combined analytic and numeric tools we elucidate the physics of a sequence of instabilities at a frictional interface.…”

“…Using combined analytic and numeric tools we elucidate the physics of a sequence of instabilities at a frictional interface. In particular, we study the dynamics of slowly extending creep patches [39][40][41][42][43], their stability, and the emerging nonlinearly propagating rupture fronts.The model -The friction model we study is the realistic rate-and-state model introduced in [38], which is briefly presented here. The spatially-extended interface between two dry macroscopic bodies is composed of an ensemble of contact asperities whose total area A r is much smaller than the nominal contact area A n [44].…”

“…The model -The friction model we study is the realistic rate-and-state model introduced in [38], which is briefly presented here. The spatially-extended interface between two dry macroscopic bodies is composed of an ensemble of contact asperities whose total area A r is much smaller than the nominal contact area A n [44].…”

Effect of stress state on slow rupture propagation in synthetic fault gouges

“…Recent numerical and experimental studies have shown that, depending on friction and stress conditions, slow rupture modes occur either as isolated events or in conjunction with much faster modes (Rubinstein et al 2004;Ben-David et al 2010a;Nielsen et al 2010;Kaneko and Ampuero 2011;Bar Sinai et al 2012). However, previous laboratory experiments on rocks have focused on stick-slip events for bare surfaces of granite and dunite under a relatively narrow range of normal stress conditions (equivalent to less than approximately 10 MPa) (e.g., Johnson and Scholz 1976;Okubo and Dieterich 1984;Kato et al 1992;Ohnaka and Shen 1999), although the values of duration and propagation velocity for the SSEs (Gao et al 2012) may be influenced by variations in effective normal stress on the plate interface.…”