This thesis presents research on friction models of varying degrees of complexity and their application in physical modelling sound synthesis. For this aim, the focus is to develop physical models based on finite difference time-domain methods simulating two friction based instruments: a violin, modelled as a bowed stiff string connected to a resonant plate and a friction drum, modelled as a bowed membrane connected to an acoustic tube.

A comparison is desired of the behavior and sound using a static friction model, where the friction force is only dependent on the relative velocity of the interacting elements and a dynamic model, where the state of the system is dependent on its history, hysteresis.

The aim is to implement these models in a real-time sound synthesis software, with the main desire being not the faithful reproduction of the original acoustic instruments, but the development of new instruments based on the physics of their acoustic counterparts, which can be extended or modulated in ways that are not possible in the physical world.