Traveling waves in a spring-block chain sliding down a slope

International audienceTravelling waves are studied in a spring slider-block model. We explicitly construct front waves (kinks) for a piecewise-linear spinodal friction force. Pulse waves are obtained as the matching of two traveling fronts with identical speeds. Explicit formulas are obtained for the wavespeed and the wave form in the anti-continuum limit. The link with localized waves in a Burridge-Knopoff model of an earthquake fault is briefly discussed