The main objective of the proposal is to offer the best possibe integration conditions to an outstanding young researcher in its new institution. Dr. Scheibert, who is an internationally recognized expert in the physics of friction and fracture, has just received a permanent research position in French CNRS, and has been affected to the Laboratory of Tribology and Dynamics of Systems at Ecole Centrale Lyon. There, he aims at setting up and manage his own research group dedicated to the experimental study of the dynamics of shear cracks along heterogeneous frictional interfaces with an original and multidisciplinary approach.

The main methods to be applied are highly controlled model experiments on the frictional contact between an elastomer and a rigid substrate. The dynamics of the slip field over the whole interface will be monitored optically using high speed camera acquisition and a digital image correlation method developed by Dr. Scheibert. The role of both (i) the mesoscopic heterogeneities induced by the geometry and loading and (ii) the smale scale surface disorder on the nucleation, propagation and arrest of micro-slip fronts will be studied in details. The experimental data will be compared with continuum and discrete modelling, in particular with simulations performed by the former group of Dr. Scheibert in the University of Oslo. The objective is to provide a comprehensive picture of friction at all scales and use it to solve important practical problems in a variety of fields including mechanical engineering, geology, biology and robotics.

This project, by providing Dr. Scheibert with excellent career perspectives, is expected to stabilize a productive and promising activity on friction and fracture in Europe, as well as to strengthen existing and promote new collaborations among its countries.