Assessing Friction Laws for Simulating Bowed-String Motion

In order to carry out meaningful "virtual" exper-2 iments on the playability of bowed-string instru-3 ments, a simulation model is required that can re-4 produce all details relevant to a musician.Mea-5 sured transient behaviour of machine-bowed strings 6 is compared in detail with predictions from a range 7 of previously-published computer simulation mod-8 els.The general trends of waveforms and param-9 eter dependence observed experimentally are suc-10 cessfully predicted, but some important details are 11 not well captured by any of the models tested.The 12 discrepancies, mainly associated with uncertainty 13 about the correct model for the frictional interac-14 tion between bow and string, are examined sys-15 tematically to reveal patterns of sensitivity to spe-16 cific features of the models and to provide guidance 17 on aspects of those models that may require en-18 hancement to achieve a closer match to experiment.19 Of the models tested, the friction model based on 20 contact temperature performed significantly better 21 than more traditional ones based on instantaneous 22 sliding speed.23