Section: New Results

Solitary waves in the excitable Burridge-Knopoff model

Participants : Guillaume James, Jose Eduardo Morales Morales, Arnaud Tonnelier.

The Burridge-Knopoff model is a lattice differential equation describing a chain of blocks connected by springs and pulled over a surface. This model was originally introduced to investigate nonlinear effects arising in the dynamics of earthquake faults. One of the main ingredients of the model is a nonlinear velocity-dependent friction force between the blocks and the fixed surface. We introduce a simplified piecewise linear friction law (reminiscent of the McKean nonlinearity for excitable cells) which allows us to obtain analytical expression of solitary waves and study some of their qualitative properties, such as wavespeed and propagation failure. These results have been published in [11].

We have obtained an existence theorem for solitary waves in the Burridge-Knopoff model. Our approach uses a piecewise-linear friction force combined with a weak coupling strength. Using asymptotic arguments, we show that trial solutions, obtained semi-analytically, satisfy, for some parameter set, the inequality constraints associated with the threshold conditions. An approximation of the wave profile is obtained and a minimal wave speed is derived.