22 that friction would be in direct proportion to the surface

energy . This explains why in many experiments stronger

adhesionusually corresponds toa higher friction.
In the above discussions the only normal force on the
sliding molecule results from the attractive interactions.
Whenexternally appliedloador pressure is to be considered,
the energy balance has tobe modiedas
F d = E + F
ext
D 26
where E is the change in system energy dened in Eq 21,
the second term in the right hand represents the work done
by external force during the upward motion of the molecule.
The shear stress is

C
=

+
D
d

F
ext
A
= C
1
+ C
2
P
ext
27
Equation 27 provides important information on the
nature of wearless friction, which deserves a further discus-
sion.
The wearless friction consists of two components,
namely the adhesion term C
1
and the pressure term C
2
P
ext
.
Similar expressions for the shear stress, e.g.,
C
=
0
+P,
were also derived by other investigators 26,27, where
0
represents the contribution from adhesion and is referred
toas the frictioncoefcient.
The adhesion term is a primary contribution in most
cases of atomic-scale friction since a typical external pres-
sure is in the order of 10 MPa while the internal van der
Waals pressure is estimated as 1 GPa when using a typical
Hamaker constant. The adhesion term should be also con-
sidered as a function of the applied normal load because it is
inversely proportional to the meanspace D
0
, whichis depen-
dent onthe external pressure.
If the surfaces are damaged during sliding so that wear
debris and multi-asperity contacts are involved in the pro-
cess, the mechanism of friction will be substantially differ-
ent fromwhat we discussedfor wearless friction.
In summary, sliding can be regarded as a process during
which interfacial atoms would experience a series of stick-
slip motions, similar to the jump in and out in the adhesion
case, and it is the energy loss in this approach/separation
cycle that determines the level of friction.
5 The Nature of Static Friction
5.1 Molecular Origin of Static Friction
Figure 29 schematically shows the energy barrier of a system
in contact and its change with applied lateral force. For two
surfaces in static contact, interfacial atoms or molecules are
pinned in potential energy minima Fig. 29a. If a lateral
force is applied on one of the surfaces in an attempt to ini-
tiate motion, the force biases the potential energy curve so
that the energy barrier, preventing the trapped atoms from
escaping the energy minima, decreases withincreasing force
Fig. 29b. Eventually, the atoms will start to move once the
energy barrier drops tozeroFig. 29c.
From a microscopic point of view, the change of system
state from rest to sliding is a process of pinning/depinning
transition. The interfacial atoms in a sliding systemmay not
depin at the same time. When a part of atoms are depinned,
the systemwill reorganize itself intoa newstate that requires
a larger force to depin. Therefore, static friction is dened as
the largest force whenall the pinning states disappear.
Studies based on the Frenkel-Kontorova model reveal
that static friction depends on the strength of interactions
and structural commensurability between the surfaces in
contact. For surfaces in incommensurate contact, there is a
critical strength, b
c
, below which the depinning force be-
comes zero and static friction disappears, i.e., the chain
starts to slide if an innitely small force F is applied cf. Sec-
tion 3. This is understandable from the energetic point of
view that the interfacial atoms in an incommensurate sys-
tem can hardly settle in any potential minimum, or the en-
ergy barrier, which prevents the object from moving, can be
almost zero.
Solid contacts are incommensurate in most cases, ex-
cept for two crystals with the same lattice constant in perfect
alignment. That is to say, a commensurate contact will be-
come incommensurate if one of the objects is turned by a
certain angle. This is illustrated in Fig. 30, where open and
solid circles represent the top-layer atoms at the upper and
lower solids, respectively. The left sector shows two surfaces
in commensurate contact while the right one shows the
same solids in contact but with the upper surface turned by
90 degrees. Since the lattice period on the two surfaces,
whenmeasured inthe x direction, are 5

3 and 5 , respec-
tively, which gives a ratio of irrational value, the contact be-
comes incommensurate.
In reality, static friction is always observed regardless of
whether the surfaces in contact are commensurate or not.
This raises a newquestion as to why the model illustrated in
Fig. 29 fails to provide a satisfactory explanation for the ori-
ginof static friction.
Another mechanism of static friction suggests that
whentwosurfaces are pressedtogether under a normal load,
the atoms or molecules at the interface will rearrange them-
selves to minimize the energy and to form localized junc-
tions called cold welding, which is often observed in contacts
Fig. 29A diagram of the energy barrier, a for a system in static contact, b and c variations of the barrier with applied lateral force.
CHAPTER 9 FRICTION AND ADHESION 181
Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Sat Jun 13 22:24:32 EDT 2009
Downloaded/printed by
U i it f Mi hi t t Li A t N f th d ti th i d
between clean metal surfaces in vacuum. Cold-welded junc-
tions provide one explanation for static friction, but rupture
of the junctions will inevitably cause structural damage and
wear. This brings us back tothe oldquestion, raisedearlier in
this chapter, whichwas howto explainthe static frictionthat
occurs without wear.
It has been proposed recently 28 that static friction
may result from the molecules of a third medium, such as
adsorbed monolayers or liquid lubricant conned between
the surfaces. The conned molecules can easily adjust or re-
arrange themselves toformlocalizedstructures that are con-
formal to both adjacent surfaces, so that they stay at the en-
ergy minimum. A nite lateral force is required to initiate
motion because the energy barrier created by the substrate-
medium system has to be overcome, which gives rise to a
static friction depending on the interfacial substances. The
model is consistent with the results of computer simulations
29, meanwhile it successfully explains the sensitivity of
frictiontosurface lmor contamination.
Another possibility associates with the thermodynamic
nature of the system. It has been recognized that the energy
barrier diminishes for the incommensurate contacts be-
cause the potential energies fromtwo surfaces in contact are
combined together and canceled with each other. However,
local and instantaneous energy barriers randomly distrib-
uted over time and space may appear due to thermodynamic
uctuations. It is thus possible that friction may result from
a nonzero time and spatial average of the instantaneous en-
ergy barriers.
5.2 Static Friction and Stick-Slip Motion
From the point of view of system dynamics, the transition
from rest to sliding observed in static friction originates
from the same mechanism as the stick-slip transition in ki-
netic friction, which is schematically shown in Fig. 31. The
surfaces at rest are instable equilibriumwhere interfacial at-
oms sit in energy minima. As lateral force on one of the sur-
faces increases loading, the system experiences a similar
process as towhat happens inthe stick phase that the surface
starts to slide whenthe energy barrier disappears. The initia-
tionof surface motioninthis sense is a result of systeminsta-
bility, the same as the occurrence of slip. The similarity al-
lows us to employ the models in studying wearless kinetic
friction, to examine the performances of static friction, for
example, the creationof creeps.
In the experiments of static friction where two solids
were nominally at rest, a small displacement between the
surfaces, or a creep, was observed, prior to rapid slip that oc-
curred at F=F
s
. The creep length d
0
was reported to be in a
range of 1 m 30,31. The formation of creep was conven-
tionally interpreted as a result of pulling and breaking the
adhesive junctions. However, the presumption of regarding
plastic deformation or cold-welding as the sole cause of
static friction is fundamentally inaccurate. What is to be em-
phasized here is that the criterion for two surfaces under
shearing to hold together without macroscopic motion, or to
slide with each other, simply depends on the favorable en-
ergy conditions of the system. In other words, the occur-
Fig. 30Change in commensurability of two surface in contact, on the left is a commensurate contact, on the right the contact becomes
incommensurate when the upper body being turned by 90 degrees, the open and solid circles denote the surface atoms of the upper and
lower bodies, respectively.
Fig. 31A schematic plot of friction versus time, illustrating the
climbing of the friction coefcient followed by a sudden drop at
the time of slip.
182 PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF MICRO-NANOTRIBOLOGY
Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Sat Jun 13 22:24:32 EDT 2009
Downloaded/printed by
U i it f Mi hi t t Li A t N f th d ti th i d
rence of stick-slip does not have to be interpreted in terms of
the formation or rupture of adhesive junctions, but is all
about which state is more favorable for the systemto realize
the energy minimization.
Althougha systemunder shear may not exhibit a macro-
scopic motion during the stick process, there will be a small
relative displacement between the sticking surface atoms
and the substrate. This can be demonstrated by an example
shown in Fig. 32 where the oscillator stands for a surface
atom that sticks at position x, and the supporting block rep-
resents the substrate where force F is applied. The coordi-
nate difference between the oscillator and the support is x
0
x that increases with the growing force. At the moment
right before the atom starts to jump, the value of x
0
x
reaches the maximum, which corresponds to the creep
length of static friction. The creep length in this case is com-
parable tothe periodof the potential functionof the opposite
surface, which has been demonstrated by the force curve
giveninthe insertedpanel of Fig. 32.
Asimilar process canbe observedat the asperity level, as
shown in Fig. 33, where a lateral force F pulls the upper solid
forward by a distance, u, while the asperity attached to the
solid body remains in contact with the lower asperity. The
value of u at the moment when the asperity is suddenly
pulled out of contact gives rise to creep length of static fric-
tion. By referring to the force curve shown in the inserted
panel of Fig. 33, the creep distance for this system is esti-
mated to be similar with the asperity dimension in the slid-
ing direction, which is in agreement with the measured
creeplength, 1 m, as reportedinRef. 30.
So far we have compared the static friction with the
stick-slip transition. In both cases the system has to choose
between the states of rest and motion, depending on which
one is more favorable to the energy minimization. On the
other hand, the differences between the two processes de-
serve a discussion, too. In stick-slip, when the moving sur-
face slides in an average velocity V, there is a characteristic
time, t
c
=d
0
/ V, that denes how long the two surfaces can
Fig. 32Static friction and creep in an atomic system: the creep distance is dened as the maximum value of x
0
-x, inserted panel shows
the variation of lateral force.
Fig. 33Static friction between asperities, inserted panel shows variation of lateral force.
CHAPTER 9 FRICTION AND ADHESION 183
Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Sat Jun 13 22:24:32 EDT 2009
Downloaded/printed by
U i it f Mi hi t t Li A t N f th d ti th i d
hold together, or the age of the contact. This is the time
needed for the interfacial molecules to relax and to reestab-
lish the contact. For this reason, stick-slip will disappear un-
der a large sliding velocity because time is too short to re-
sume the contact population. In static friction, on the other
hand, the surfaces usually are set at rest for a long time be-
fore being pulled apart so that the contact age in most cases
canbe calculatedfromthe time of . This wouldleadtotwo
consequences. First, static friction, the maximum force
needed to initiate sliding, is usually higher than the force
peak appeared in stick-slip, mainly due to the longer contact
time. Secondly, instability in static friction occurs at the be-
ginning of sliding, possibly followed by a steady sliding,
while the stick-slip will proceed in a periodic manner pro-
vided that the dynamical set up of the system remains un-
changed. Nevertheless, one has to keep in mind that the con-
tact time in some cases is an important factor to be
accountedfor inthe study of static friction.
5.3 Static Friction in Lubricated Contacts
The mechanisms of static friction and stick-slip motion, as
discussed in the last section, are supposed to be a good de-
scription of dry friction. Another case, perhaps more general
in engineering practices, to be addressed in this section is lu-
bricated sliding where liquid lubricant, consisting of a few
molecule layers, is conned between two solid walls. Both
experimental and theoretical studies indicate, as we have
discussed in Chapter 5, that there are substantial changes in
rheology of the conned lubricant, and the liquid may tran-
sit practically to a solid-like state when lm thickness be-
comes molecularly thin32,33.
As a lateral force drags one solid surface along the x di-
rection, the solidied thin lms experience an increasing
shear stress until reaching a certain limit
a
when the lubri-
cant yields andstarts toowagainlike a liquid. The solidsur-
face pulled by the lateral force then starts to move forward
with a certain sliding velocity. If the solid slows down, the
stress will decrease correspondingly but the lubricating lm
may remain at liquid state until it meets the second critical
value,
c
, when the lubricant returns to solid state. In this
model, the static friction, or transition fromrest to motion is
interpreted as a result of yield of solidied lubricating lms,
and stick-slip is regarded as a process of periodic transition
betweenmelting andfreezing phases 24.
On the basis of experimental observations and com-
puter simulations, Persson 34 proposed a stress-velocity
relation, =fv, as schematically reproduced in Fig. 34,
whichdescribes howshear stress changes withsliding veloc-
ity. Assume the system begins from a stationary state with
both sliding velocity and shear stress being zero. After a lat-
eral force is applied onone surface and pulls it along the slid-
ing direction, the shear stress on the conned lubricant rises
up but the surface remains stationary, i.e., the shear stress
increases along a vertical line of V=0 in Fig. 34. When the
growing shear stress goes to a critical value,
a
, the solidied
lubricant yields tothe stress andstarts toow. As a result, the
velocity of the solid surface increases rapidly from 0 to v
a
.
For a further increase of velocity, the stress will go up along
the oblique line BE, following the viscous law of uid trac-
tion. If the sliding slows down, however, the lubricant does
not immediately resume the solid state, but remains as liq-
uid so that the stress decreases along the line BC until it
meets the point Cwhere the sliding velocity and correspond-
ing stress are denoted as v
b
and
c
, respectively. As the veloc-
ity decreases continuously, the lubricant will go through a
state known as granular uid in the range of v
c
vv
b
,
where the shear stress keeps almost constant. At the point D
the lubricant returns completely tosolidstate.
At the beginning of sliding, the systemis accelerated be-
cause the driven force must excess the resistance fromlubri-
cating lm. For this reason, the system actually jumps from
A to the point B, instead of B, to gain a shear stress lower
than the critical value
a
. This phenomenon, so called
velocity-weakening has been regarded widely in the litera-
tures as the cause for instability and stick-slip motion in lu-
bricatedsystems.
Finally, it deserves to be mentioned that considerable
numbers of models of static friction based on continuum
mechanics and asperity contact were proposed in the litera-
ture. For instance, the friction at individual asperity was cal-
culated, and the total force of friction was then obtained
through a statistical sum-up 35. In the majority of such
models, however, the friction on individual asperity was esti-
mated in terms of a phenomenal shear stress without involv-
ing the originof friction.
6 Summary
1. For solid surfaces interacting in air, the adhesion forces
mainly result from van der Waals interaction and capil-
lary force, but the effects of electrostatic forces due to
the formation of an electrical double-layer have to be in-
cluded for analyzing adhesion in solutions. Besides, ad-
hesion has to be studied as a dynamic process in which
the approach and separation of two surfaces are always
accompanied by unstable motions, jump in and out, at-
tributing tothe instability of sliding system.
2. The conventional interpretationfor the originof friction
in terms of material damage or wear is not satisfactorily
convincing for it greatly underestimates the energy loss
in sliding. We have demonstrated in this chapter that a
wearless friction may originate fromunstable motion of
interfacial atoms, molecules, or asperities, resulting in
vibrations that are consequently damped through pho-
non emission or electron excitation, and nally dissi-
patedintoheat.
Fig. 34Shear stress on boundary lms versus sliding velocity re-
produced after Ref. 33.
184 PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF MICRO-NANOTRIBOLOGY
Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Sat Jun 13 22:24:32 EDT 2009
Downloaded/printed by
U i it f Mi hi t t Li A t N f th d ti th i d