1. Links between vibration and friction

Describing the links between vibration and friction presents a number of major difficulties. The first is the complex interaction between vibrations and friction, since the presence of vibrations in a contact modifies its frictional behavior, and friction is capable of generating vibrations at the same time. Another difficulty lies in the fact that a given contact can emit very different types of vibration. A final difficulty is linked to the very nature of vibrations, which is a phenomenon involving the deformability of at least one of the parts of a mechanism. A more detailed analysis of these difficulties will be made in the following paragraphs, which will help to justify the scope of this article.