Friction of Metals and Non-Metals

Friction of Metals

The coefficient of friction of a particular materials depends on @ Mating materials @ Surface roughness and @ Operating conditions When the metal surfaces are cleaned in high vacuum and placed in contact, strong adhesion is absorved and consequently high friction is absorved

 In vacuum typically 2 to 10 or even more With no interfacial contamination, the extent of junction growth is limited by ductility of material Gold is ductile but it does not forms oxide layers in the air, thus considerable amount of junction growth in gold contact leads to high friction Most metals forms oxide layer in air and the layer will be in the range of 1 to 10nm

These films play important role in frictional characteristics

Effect of oxygen in sliding friction of pure iron

Variation of coefficient of friction with normal load for copper sliding on copper In air
At low normal loads, the oxide films separate the two metals Coefficient of friction is low because the oxide has low shear strength At higher loads the surface films deforms and metallic contact occurs leading to high frictions Note: for chromium very thin but strong oxide layer is formed and no metallic contact occurs for a wide range of normal loads leading to a low constant friction

 Friction of metals is affected by number of parameters like,

1. Sliding velocity
2. Contact Pressure 3. Temperature

4. Relative Humidity
5. Environmental conditions

Variation of coefficient of friction for pure Bismuth and Copper

Variation of coefficient of friction as a function of temperature for cobalt sliding on stainless steel
Cobalt exhibits phase transformation from Hexagonal close packed structure to Cubic Packed structure at 4170c This is fully ductile This phase transformation leads to peak friction at 5000c The decrease in friction after 5500c is because of oxide film thickness and changes in oxides species from CoO to Co3O4

Friction of Non-Metallic Materials

Ceramics combine low density with excellent mechanical properties (high strength, stiffness, hardness etc..) up to high temperatures These are called engineering materials

These engineering materials include silicon nitride (SiN4), silicon carbide (SiC), Alumina (Al2O3), Zirconia (ZrO2)
Ceramics are used in extreme conditions like high loads, high speeds, high temperatures and corrosive environments Because of different nature of bonds in ceramics compared with metals they show limited plastic flow at room temperatures Correspondingly much less ductility than metals Although adhesive forces are present the very low real area of contact makes them to have relatively low coefficient of friction

In clean environment friction coefficient does not reach high values as in the case of metals show high friction in vacuum
The reason for this less friction is the coefficient of friction decreases with an increase in fracture toughness

Friction as function of Fracture Toughness

This is for sharp diamond tip on (SiN4), (SiC), (Al2O3), (ZrO2) disks produced under various hot pressing conditions Fracture is readily produced in concentrated contacts

At low loads, friction is low and no fracture occurs with plastic grooving

Variation of coefficient of friction with normal load for 600 diamond cone sliding over the face of a silicon carbide

With increase in load the friction increases and fracture occurs The role of normal load, sliding speed, temperature and test duration of friction of ceramics may be interpreted based on the tribo-chemical changes in the surface film and also extent of fracture in the contact zone

Load and speed affects the temperature at the interface

Variation of coefficient of friction with sliding speed for reaction bonded silicon carbide and hot pressed silicon nitride samples
This is for self mated silicon carbide and silicon nitride This similar phenomenon is absorved in alumina and zerconia

With sliding speed interface temperature increases and this enhances the film formation in the sliding surface which decreases the friction

Variation of coefficient of friction as a function of temperature for alumina and zerconia

This is sliding of self mated pair in air The removal of adsorbed water results in initial rise of friction

Friction of Polymers
Polymer includes elastomers and plastics The coefficient of friction for polymers ranges from 0.15-0.6 in general With the exception of PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) which have very low coefficient of friction 0.05 Thus in general polymers exhibit low coefficient of friction comparative to metals and ceramics Mostly used in the applications are self lubricating solids

# PTFE, HDFE (High density polyethylene), polyphenylene sulphide (PPS), pluamide (Nylon), polyimide, acetal etc. are commonly used plastics
# commonly used elastomers are natural and synthetic rubber, styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), silicon rubber etc. These self lubricated solids readily flow at moderate temperatures and pressures Since polymers lack in rigidity and strength, polymer composites are used to provide combination of mechanical strength with low friction and wear Carbon, graphite and glass are commonly used filler materials to make polymer composites

 When plastic slide against hard metal surfaces, transfer film of plastic is formed on the mating surface and this governs the friction and wear

Sliding tend to occur at the interface of bulk polymer and transfer film leading to low wear rates
The coefficient of friction for initial hard materials is 0.2-0.3 As the sliding continues the coefficient of friction drops to much lower values