Dynamics of elastic rods in perfect friction contact

Abstract

One of the most challenging and basic problems in elastic rod dynamics is a description of rods in contact that prevents any unphysical self-intersections. Most previous works addressed this issue through the introduction of short-range potentials. We study the dynamics of elastic rods with perfect rolling contact which is physically relevant for rods with rough surface, and cannot be described by any kind of potential. We derive the equations of motion and show that the system is essentially non-linear due to the moving contact position, resulting in a surprisingly complex behavior of the system.