The effects of surface roughness and contaminants on the dynamic friction between porcelain tile and vulcanized rubber

Abstract

Surface roughness affects friction, but it is not clear which surface roughness characteristics are better correlated with friction. The dynamic friction between porcelain tiles and a commonly used shoe sole material, vulcanized rubber, under six test conditions with four different mixtures of glycerol and water as contaminants at the interface was correlated with the surface parameters generated from the tile surfaces. The results showed that dynamic friction decreased as the glycerol content in the contaminant and the interface sliding speed were increased due to the lubrication effect. The correlation coefficient between the surface roughness parameters and the measured friction was affected by the glycerol ratios. However, the skewness of surface heights ( R sk), the arithmetical average and root mean square of surface slope ( Δ a and Δ q) and the kernel roughness depth ( R k) had the highest correlation with dynamic friction.