Finish Line & Beyond

FRICTION

Factors Affecting Friction

Types of Friction

Reducing Friction

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Friction is the force resisting the relative lateral (tangential) motion of solid
surfaces, fluid layers, or material elements in contact.

Force of Friction

Friction is a force that is created whenever two surfaces move or try to move across
each other.

• Friction always opposes the motion or attempted motion of one surface across
another surface.
• Friction is dependant on the texture of both surfaces.
• Friction is also dependant on the amount of contact force pushing the two
surfaces together (normal force).

Factors affecting Friction

Friction depends partly on the smoothness of the contacting surfaces, a greater force
being needed to move two surfaces past one another if they are rough than if they
are smooth. However, friction decreases with smoothness only to a degree; friction
actually increases between two extremely smooth surfaces because of increased
attractive electrostatic forces between their atoms. Friction does not depend on the
amount of surface area in contact between the moving bodies or (within certain
limits) on the relative speed of the bodies. It does, however, depend on the
magnitude of the forces holding the bodies together. When a body is moving over a
horizontal surface, it presses down against the surface with a force equal to its
weight, i.e., to the pull of gravity upon it; an increase in the weight of the body
causes an increase in the amount of resistance offered to the relative motion of the
surfaces in contact.

Types of Friction

Static friction: - Static friction is friction between two solid objects that are not
moving relative to each other. For example, static friction can prevent an object from
sliding down a sloped surface. The coefficient of static friction, typically denoted as
μs, is usually higher than the coefficient of kinetic friction.

An example of static friction is the force that prevents a car wheel from slipping as it
rolls on the ground. Even though the wheel is in motion, the patch of the tire in
contact with the ground is stationary relative to the ground, so it is static rather than
kinetic friction.

The maximum value of static friction, when motion is impending, is sometimes

referred to as limiting friction, although this term is not used universally.

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Kinetic friction:- Kinetic (or dynamic) friction occurs when two objects are moving
relative to each other and rub together (like a sled on the ground). The coefficient of
kinetic friction is typically denoted as μk, and is usually less than the coefficient of
static friction for the same materials.

• Kinetic friction is when two objects are rubbing against each other. Putting a
book flat on a desk and moving it around is an example of kinetic friction.

• Fluid friction is the interaction between a solid object and a fluid (liquid or
gas), as the object moves through the fluid. The skin friction of air on an
airplane or of water on a swimmer are two examples of fluid friction.

Reducing friction

Devices

Devices such as wheels, ball bearings, air cushion or roller bearing can change
sliding friction into a much smaller type of rolling friction. Many thermoplastic
materials such as nylon, HDPE and PTFE are commonly used for low friction
bearings. They are especially useful because the coefficient of friction falls with
increasing imposed load.

Lubricants

A common way to reduce friction is by using a lubricant, such as oil, water, or

grease, which is placed between the two surfaces, often dramatically lessening the
coefficient of friction. The science of friction and lubrication is called tribology.
Lubricant technology is when lubricants are mixed with the application of science,
especially to industrial or commercial objectives.

Energy of friction

According to the law of conservation of energy, no energy is destroyed due to

friction, though it may be lost to the system of concern. Energy is transformed from
other forms into heat.

When an object is pushed along a surface, the energy converted to heat is given by:

Eth = µ kƒ Fn (x) dx

Where

Fn is the normal force,

μk is the coefficient of kinetic friction,
x is the coordinate along which the object transverses.

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Summary

• Friction opposes the relative motion between two surfaces in contact. It acts
on both the surfaces.

• Friction depends on the nature of surfaces in contact.

• For a given pair of surfaces friction depends upon the state of smoothness of
those surfaces.

• Friction depends on how hard the two surfaces press together.

• Static friction comes into play when we try to move an object at rest.

• Sliding friction comes with play when an object is sliding over another.

• Sliding friction is smaller than static friction.

• Friction is important for many of our activities.

• Friction can be increased by making a surface rough.

• The sole of the shoes and the tyres of the vehicle are treaded to increase
friction.

• The friction is sometimes undesirable.

• Friction can be reduced by using lubricants.

• When one body rolls over another body, rolling friction comes into play.
Rolling friction is smaller than the sliding friction.

• In many machines, friction is reduced by using ball bearings.

• Fluid friction can be minimised by giving suitable shapes to bodies moving in

fluids.

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 Finish Line & Beyond

www.excellup.com ©2009 send your queries to enquiry@excellup.com