The Influence of Surface Roughness on the Mechanism of Friction

Abstract

Abstract A study was made of surface roughness effects on dry friction between two metals, assuming that the asperities are cones of the slopes which depend on the surface roughness. The theoretical explanations were offered for coefficients of friction of the hard cones and spheres ploughing along the soft metal surface. A comparison of calculated values based on these with experimental data shows good agreement. Moreover, theoretical discussion was carried out of surface roughness effects on dry friction between two metal surfaces on the basis of the analyses of the frictional mechanism for a hard slider on the metal surface. The theoretical estimation of the coefficient of friction between two metal surfaces can be carried out by using the relations between the surface roughness and the slopes of the asperities, and the coefficient of friction due to the adhesion at the interface. The experiments also showed that when two metal surfaces are first loaded normally and then subjected to gradually increasing tangential forces, real area of contact between them increases and the maximum tangential microslip of them increases with the increase of the surface roughness.