Nature of static friction time dependence

Abstract

Magnetic storage systems, like disk-head and tap-head interfaces, machine tool guideways, and many other friction pairs, are vulnerable to so-called 'stiction'. Stiction is a contact phenomenon whereby static friction increases relative to kinetic friction. As a rule, this effect increases dramatically with time of stationary contact. Thus, the time dependence of static friction is an important subject of tribological studies. The motivation of this work is to understand the static friction mechanism at both extremes of the rest time or dwell range: short-term dwell is in the order of seconds or minutes, and long-term dwell is in the order of days or months. The stiction models reviewed cover a wide spectrum of static friction processes related to material deformation, meniscus formation and viscous lubricant flow.