Fundamentals of Friction and Energy Dissipation

Fundamentals of Friction and Energy Dissipation

Yuanzhong Hu
State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, China
(Extended Abstract)
ABSTRACT
The paper reviews recent progresses in fundamental studies
of friction. The topics include the importance for
understanding wearless friction, the origin of interfacial
friction, and a simple model for stick-slip motion and
energy dissipation. Great efforts have been made to predict
friction quantitatively, but the successes are limited to few
cases where continuum mechanics or molecular dynamic
simulations are able to provide numerical results.
Key words: Wearless friction, atomic scale friction, energy
dissipation.

For interfacial or wearless friction, the sliding is in fact a

process consisting of a series of events of surface
approach-separation, and it is the energy dissipation during
the process of approach and separation that determines the
magnitude of the interfacial friction. This process can be
modeled by an oscillator sliding over a sinusoidal potential
as shown in Fig. 2.

INTRODUCTION
It is well known that friction used to be accompanied by
wear and sever wear would cause high friction, but middle
or light wear does not guarantee a low friction either. The
existence of high friction in case of very small wear
indicates that energy has been dissipated in an approach
that has little to do with structural damage and material
removal. The mechanism of energy dissipation in wearless
friction has not been revealed, and in this sense the mystery
of friction remains unsolved. This is why scientists are so
enthusiastic for the study of wearless friction.

x
x0

(a)
4

Forward B

Force F

MODEL AND CONFIRMATION

It is gradually recognized that when two surfaces are
brought into contact and separated again, as shown
schematically in Fig.1a, the process will associate
inevitably with energy dissipation, no matter how carefully
the operation is carried out. Fig.1b shows a force curve
during separation of two mica surfaces, manifesting a
strong cantilever at the moment of pull-off.

-2

E
G
Backward

-4

12

16

Distance X0

(b)
Fig. 2 An oscillator sliding over a periodic potential (a),
and literal force plotted against sliding distance (b).
The model predicts that for a strong spring (large stiffness k)
and a week interfacial interaction (small amplitude V of
potential fluctuation) the sliding will be smooth without
energy loss, but when the ratio V/k exceeds a critical value
the oscillator will slide in a stick-slip way accompanied by
energy dissipation. This phenomenon has been observed
both in experiments and computer simulations [1, 2].

(a)

REFERENCES
1. M Ternes, C P. Lutz, C F. Hirjibehedin, et al., The force
needed to move an atom on a surface, Science, 319 (2008)
1066-1069.
2. T Zhang, H Wang, and YZ Hu, Atomic stick-slip friction
between commensurate self-assembled monolayers,
Tribology Letters, 14 (2003), 69-72.

(b)
Fig. 1 Approach and separation of two smooth surfaces (a),
and accompanied energy dissipation (b).

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