Stability of frictional slipping at an anisotropic/isotropic interface

The stability of steady, quasi-static slip at a planar interface between an anisotropic elastic solid and an isotropic elastic solid is studied. The paper begins with an analysis of anti-plane sliding at an orthotropic/isotropic interface. Friction at the interface is assumed to follow a rate- and state-dependent law. The stability to spatial perturbations of the form exp(ikx₁), where k is the wavenumber and x₁ is the coordinate along which the interface is studied. An expression is derived for the critical wavenumber ∣k∣_cr above which there is stability. In-plane sliding at an anisotropic/isotropic interface is subsequently studied. In this case, slip couples with normal stress changes and a constitutive law for dynamic normal stress changes is adopted. Again a formula for ∣k∣_cr is derived and the results are specialized to the case of an orthotropic/isotropic interface. Numerical plots of the dependence of ∣k∣_cr on the orientation of the orthotropic solid, as well as on the material parameters are provided.