Sliding susceptibility of a rough cylinder on a rough inclined perturbed surface

A susceptibility function χ(L) is introduced to quantify some aspects of the intermittent stick-slip dynamics of a rough metallic cylinder of length L on a rough metallic incline submitted to small controlled perturbations and maintained below the angle of repose. This problem is studied from the experimental point of view and the observed power-law behavior of χ(L) is justified through the use of a general class of scaling hypotheses.