Harmonic expansion and nonsmooth dynamics in a circular contact region with combined slip-spin motion

We analyse a rigid body in planar motion while touching a rough plane at a finite-sized, circular contact area. Assuming Coulomb friction between the tangential and normal pressure distributions, the resultant forces and torques can be expressed formally with a nonsmooth dependence on the kinematic variables. In the literature, the exact form of the tangential forces is available for special pressure distributions expressed by transcendent functions; recently, an approximate linear model was introduced. Now, we present a nonlinear extension of the approximation, which can be used effectively to characterise slipping-sticking transitions between the bodies.