DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2001-00109-0


Europhys. Lett., 55 (5) , pp. 653-659 (2001)

Inverted stick-slip friction

P. Richetti¹, C. Drummond¹, J. Israelachvili¹, M. In² and R. Zana<sup>3

1</sup>  Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
²  CNRS/Rhodia complex Fluids Lab., Rhodia Prospect Plains Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512-7500, USA
³  Institut Charles Sadron - 6 rue Boussingault, 67083 Strasbourg, Cedex, France

(Received 26 March 2001; accepted in final form 12 June 2001)

Abstract
Sliding of adhesive boundary lubricated surfaces immersed in aqueous solutions has been studied. Under certain conditions "inverted" stick-slip motion is observed where, in contrast to conventional stick-slip, the friction spikes point down rather than up and the transition from smooth to stick-slip sliding occurs above rather than below some critical driving velocity. For the first time, inverted stick-slip motion has been studied in detail and theoretically analyzed in terms of a general model based on the kinetics of formation and rupture of adhesive links (bonds) between two shearing surfaces.

PACS
46.55.+d - Tribology and mechanical contacts.
81.40.Pq - Friction, lubrication, and wear.


© EDP Sciences 2001