23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

Some aspects regarding the influence of the

anisotropy of an AA2021-T351 rolled thick plate on
its tribological behaviour
E. PIRVAa, A. TUDORb, A. GAVRUSc*, N. STOICAd, S. CANANAUe

a. PhD Int. Thesis UPB-INSA Rennes, University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB),

313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania, email: [email protected]
b. Prof. University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB), OMT Department,
313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania, email: [email protected]
c. Assoc. Prof. University Brittany Loire (UBL), INSA Rennes, LGCGM (EA 3913),
20 av. des Buttes de Coesmes, 35708 Rennes, France, email : [email protected]
d. Assistant Prof. University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB), OMT Department,
313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania, email: [email protected]
e. Prof. University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB), OMT Department,
313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania, email: [email protected]

Résumé:
Cette étude scientifique vise à étudier l'influence de l'anisotropie d’une plaque épaisse laminée en
alliage d'aluminium AA2024-T351 sur les propriétés tribologiques en surface, à partir d'études
antérieures expérimentales et numériques concernant le comportement mécanique en volume et en
surface. Des essais tribologiques ont était réalisés sur un échantillon de 10 mm d’épaisseur avec un
disque en polyéthylène de masse moléculaire très élevée (UHMWPE). Le test tribométrique utilisé
implique la génération d'un mouvement à l'échelle locale le long des trajectoires spécifiques à
différents orientations sous l’action d’une force normale constante et une vitesse de glissement
constante. Tous les tests ont été faites avec trois forces normales différentes (3N, 5N, 7N) est cinq
vitesses de translation (0.005 mm/s, 0.05 mm/s, 0.5 mm/s, 1mm/s and 5mm/s) sur une distance
d’environ 3 mm. Afin d'analyser l'influence de l’anisotropie des surfaces du matériau, des essais ont
été effectués selon trois directions: une longitudinale, correspondant à la direction de laminage de
l'échantillon (0°), une transversale, qui représente la direction perpendiculaire à la direction de
laminage dans le plan de la plaque (90°) et une direction médiane (45°). Étant donné l’observation de
l’anisotropie volumique et surfacique, voir d’une nature fractale de la surface du matériau, des études
ont été effectuée afin de déterminer l'influence sur la nature anisotrope des propriétés tribologiques.
Les caractéristiques de type fractal du frottement ont été déterminées en utilisant une force normale
constante définie par Fn = 7N et en considérant les cinq vitesses de glissements ci-dessus définies.

Abstract:
This scientific paper aims to study the influence of the anisotropy of an aluminium AA2024-T251
rolled thick plate on the surface tribologic properties based on previous experimental and numerical
studies concerning bulk and surface mechanical behaviour. Experimental friction tests were made on
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

a thick plate using an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) disk. The used

tribometric test involves the generation of local motion along specified trajectories with different
orientations under the action of a constant normal force and a constant slip velocity. Three different
normal forces (3N, 5N, 7N) have been applied using five different sliding speeds (0.005 mm/s, 0.05
mm/s, 0.5 mm/s, 1mm/s and 5mm/s) along a linear trajectory of 3 mm length. In order to analyze the
influence of the aluminium alloy anisotropy, the tests have been performed along three directions: a
longitudinal one, corresponding to the rolling direction of the sample (0°), a transverse one, which
represents the direction perpendicular to the rolling direction (90°), and a median direction (45°).
Taking into account the observed bulk and surface anisotropy, especially concerning a fractal nature
of the surface topography, an investigation was performed in order to determine its influence on the
anisotropic tribologic properties. In this purpose, fractal friction characteristics have been determined
for the sliding process using a constant normal force Fn=7N and the above five sliding speeds.

Keywords: anisotropy, tribology, aluminium alloy, friction fractal analysis

1 Introduction
Friction has an important role in many industrial manufacturing processes and the actual development
of numerical engineering design tools requires reliable analyses of friction phenomena and rigorous
identification of material’s tribologic properties. The application of low weight materials as aluminium
alloys and plastics used by the automotive, railways and aeronautics industry has grown since their
introduction in the mid-1970s. During the past three decades has been designed a lot of joint metallic-
plastics structures, mechanical assemblies and couplings, particularly defined by aluminium alloy-
plastic interfaces (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Examples of aluminium alloy-plastics interfaces. (a) Jaw coupling; (b) Telescopic sliding
system.
The contact area of these types of materials couples undergoing generally a dry or a boundary
lubrication friction, a slow speed sliding and an intermittent moving within tabulated limits of
temperature. Many plastics are even self-lubricating, have an extremely corrosive resistance, a high
chemically resistance and therefore eliminate the possibility of failures from lack of maintenance. The
most commonly used in industry are the phenolics, the acetals, the teflon (PTFE), the ultra high
molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and the nylon [1]. In most sliding or rolling kinetics
during material forming processes the friction causes loss energy and high material’s wear (forging,
extrusion, cutting, etc) and in these cases, friction should be minimized (forging – low friction along
the rib). There are a lot of cases where friction has a driving role (rolling – minimal friction
requirement, forging – increased friction on the outer flat) or where friction must be optimized (deep
drawing, stretch forming process) [2]. It is known today that friction between two solid surfaces is a
very complex phenomenon that depends not only on the physical and chemical properties of the
materials involved, but also on the thermo-mechanical properties of the contact surfaces. All the study
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

of friction is mostly based on experimental, theoretical and numerical studies. Depending on the nature
of the materials and of the experimental conditions, the general evolution of a friction forces can be
presented in Figure 2 [3].

Figure 2. Evolution of the friction force through the time. (a) sliding without stick-slip;
(b) stick-slip sliding [3].
Under a normal force Fn, the Coulomb coefficient of static friction µs corresponding to Ff = Fs is
distinct from the Coulomb coefficient of kinetic friction µk corresponding to Ff = Fk as illustrated in
Fig.2a. Fs is the maximum force required to have a motion of solid, and Fk is the force applied to
maintain this motion [4]:
Fs = µ s Fn Fk = µ k Fn (1)
The classical stick-slip (shown in Fig.2b) requires that the static friction coefficient to be markedly
greater than the kinetic friction coefficient. In the case of sliding surfaces, the period of the contact
between two points on the two surfaces is longer when the surfaces slide slowly than when they move
rapidly. If the sliding of one surface over another slows down, friction increases. This is the situation
that favours the stick-slip. The phenomenon appears in metallic friction couples with dry or limited
friction regime, when the sliding speed is in the range of 0.01 – 3 mm/s or when the angular speed is
somewhere in the 1 – 25 rad/s range. Studies of sliding at slow speeds are important because they lead
systematic information of friction-velocity relations, which will enable for the engineering designers
to select materials that will not be affected by stick-slip phenomenon. There are three main classical
methods to conserve or reduce stick-slip phenomenon: changing the sliding speed (in some cases
slowing down, in some cases speeding up), reducing the stored energy or to lubricate the sliding
surfaces [5, 6]. The main purpose of this work is to analyze the rheological and tribological behaviour
especially regarding the influence of the anisotropic properties on the metallic-plastic interfaces.

2 Anisotropic Material Properties

Aluminium alloys are widely used in many industrial fields such as aeronautics, naval, railway and
automotive. The most considerable particularities of aluminium alloys are their good ductility
(especially at high temperatures), high electrical conductivity, low specific weight and their very good
formability and workability. Because of these excellent thermo-mechanical and physical
characteristics, the usage of aluminium has an ever-increasing importance in a large lot of industrial
manufacturing industry: rolling, extrusion, molding, embossing, stamping and welding [7]. This paper
proposes to analyze bulk and surface anisotropic properties of the aluminium alloy AA2024-T351
rolled thick plate (thickness = 10 mm). The main mechanical properties of this aluminium alloy are
defined by an ultimate tensile strength higher than 420 MPa, a HD harshness around 120 Kgf/mm2 and
a yield strength 0.2%>260 MPa. Experimental and the numerical identified anisotropic elasto-plastic
parameters are shown in the Table 1 and the Table 2, starting from previous experimental, theoretical
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

and numerical works [9-11]concerning the bulk plastic anisotropic behaviour conducted at GCGM
laboratory of National Institute of Applied Sciences of Rennes.
Table 1. Elasto-plastic parameters of the anisotropic aluminium alloy AA2024-T351 [9-11].
Elasticity Yield Stress [MPa] Voce Law (0°) Lankford coefficients
Parameters ( ε =0.2%)
p
σ (0°) = σ 0 (0°) + K 1 − exp( −nε ) 
p
( ε p =0.2%)

E [MPa] υ σ0(0°) σ0(45º) σ0(90º) K [MPa] n r0 r45 r90

72653 0.33 301. 266. 250. 250. 18. 0.61 0.73 0.59
Table 2. Experimental and numerical identified Hill's 1948 coefficients of AA2024-T351 [9-11].
Hill Parameters (MPa) F G H L=M=N

Experimental Plane Anisotropy ( ε p =0.2%) 0.64 0.62 0.38 1.74

Experimental Normal Anisotropy ( ε p =0.2%) 0.60 0.60 0.40 1.40

Numerical Identification of Plane Anisotropy 0.50 0.63 0.37 0.97

Numerical Identification of Normal Anisotropy 0.63 0.63 0.36 1.35

In the case of a rolled sheet an orthotropic plastic anisotropy is generally assumed considering three
specific material orientations: x-rolling direction LD (0º), y-transverse direction TD (90º) and z-
thickness direction. The plane and the normal anisotropy are analyzed from the estimation of the
Lankford coefficient r which represents the ratio between the transversal plastic strain rate and the
thickness plastic strain rate. Experimental tensile tests have been realized using 0°, 45° and 90° load
orientations with respect to the rolling direction for a lot of specific AA20124-T351 specimens with
3 mm thickness. The experimental values of Lankford coefficients r0, r45, r90 have been computed
from measurements of local longitudinal and transversal plastic strain rate corresponding to 12%
equivalent plastic strain (Table 1). According to the Lankford analysis, dimensionless coefficients of
the following Hill’48 yield criterion are also computed using specific hypothesis (Table 2).
Φ ([σ ]) = F (σ yy − σ zz ) + G (σ zz − σ xx ) + H (σ xx − σ yy ) + 2 Lτ yz2 + 2Mτ zx2 + 2 Nτ xy2 − σ 2 (0°) = 0
2 2 2
(1)
For a plane anisotropy model (generally used to describe anisotropy of thin sheets) if a reference
equivalent stress along 0° direction is considered G + H = 1 and consequently only three independent
Hill parameters F, G and N can be computed using specific relationships expressed in terms of
Lankford coefficients [11]. For a thick plate a general orthotropic three-dimensional plastic anisotropy
must be defined. In a first approximation if the experimental planar anisotropy coefficient ∆r ≈ 0 (here
∆r = −0.06 ) a normal anisotropy can be used. In this case F = G and N = F +2H where the shear
anisotropic parameters L and M are keep equal to N i.e. L = M = N. The Hill parameters were also
identified numerically by finite element simulations [10-11] starting from an interactive-graphic non-
linear regression of the stress-plastic strain curves obtained from tensile tests along 0°, 45° and 90°. A
Voce hardening law has been used to define a reference equivalent stress using the tensile curve
obtained from 0° orientation. These identified anisotropic Hill criterion permits to describe the bulk
mechanical behaviour and the macroscopic surface stress state of elasto-plastic contact interfaces.

3 Experimental Tribological Procedure

For this study a tribological analysis of the aluminium alloy AA2024-T351 rolled thick plate
(thickness = 10 mm) has been performed with a pion-plan tribometer by using an ultra-high-
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) disk. This polymer is characterized by an excellent

resistance to abrasion and its main mechanical properties: ultimate tensile strength around 38.6-48.3
MPa, yield strength of 21.4-27.6 MPa, Young’s modulus E = 894-963MPa and Poisson’s coefficient
of 0.46 [8]. The experimental UMT Tribometer (OMT Department of UPB) is presented in the Figure
2. This tribometer can provide rotational, translational or reciprocal motions with speeds starting from
0.1µm/s up to 10m/s. A constant or progressive load between 0.05 N and 1000 N can be applied on the
sample surface [12]. In order to analyze the influence of the bulk and surface material anisotropy, the
tribological tests were made on three directions (Fig. 3): a longitudinal one LD (0º), corresponding to
the rolling direction of the sample, a transversal one TD (90°) which represents the direction
perpendicular to the rolling direction and a median direction DD (45º).
(y)

LD

(x)
Figure 3. UMT Tribometer. Figure 4. Measuring directions Figure 5. 3D Optical surface
(rolled AA2024-T351 plate). profilometry.
The test involves moving a polyethylene disk along a specified trajectory under a constant normal
force and at a constant speed (Fig. 4). All the tribological tests were performed with three different
forces (3N, 5N, 7N) and five different speeds (0.005 mm/s, 0.05 mm/s, 0.5 mm/s, 1mm/s, 5mm/s)
along a linear trajectory with a length around 3 mm.

Length (µm)
(a) (b)
Figure 6. Friction test conditions. (a) Tribometer schema; (b) Surface micro-topography.
Starting from previous works of authors [13-14] where micro-topography of the rolled aluminium
alloy AA2024-T351 surface was studied, the random nature of the roughness height was described
through statistical and fractal analysis. Roughness is one of the main characteristics of surface quality
and it can be determined by non-contact measurement methods such as optical scanning of the
surface shape (Fig.5) and by special contact profilometers (Fig. 6b). A specific roughness
structural function method was used to compute the corresponding fractal dimension Df. It was
observed that the samples surface have fractal behaviour up to 1.1 µm. The estimated values of Df and
the corresponding variation curves have shown that the effect of the fractal dimension are smaller for
the longitudinal direction and they have similar values for transversal and diagonal directions.
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

4 Anisotropic Friction Analysis

The time variation of the tangential forces Ff for all measurements corresponding to three normal
forces Fn (3N, 5N, 7N) and five different sliding speeds vg are presented in Fig.7.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)
Figure 7. The time variation of the tangential force for the longitudinal (LD), transversal (TD) and
median (DD) directions. (a) 0.005mm/s; (b) 0.05mm/s; (c) 0.5mm/s; (d) 1mm/s; (e) 5mm/s.
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

Because of the polyethylene semi-crystalline nature, which has excellent abrasion resistance and good
sliding properties, it is observed that the evolution of the friction forces through time reveals a sliding
without stick-slip with a relatively steady state, even for low and moderate speeds. As can be seen
from the pictured results in Figure 7, the kinetic tangential force has values between 0.1-0.7N for the
longitudinal direction (0º), between 0.5-1.2N for the transversal direction (90º) and between 0.4-0.8N
for the median direction (45º). It can be seen that there is a similarity between the friction forces
corresponding to the transversal and the median sliding directions. The Table 3 synthesises the static
and kinetic Coulomb friction coefficients estimated by the ratio of the Ff and Fn along the three surface
specimen directions: rolling or longitudinal (LD), transversal (TD) and median (DD) directions.
Table 3. The average values of Coulomb static and kinetic friction coefficient (pc - contact pressure).
Sliding Coulomb static Coulomb kinetic
Normal force speed friction coefficient (µs) friction coefficient (µk)
Fn [N] vg [mm/s] LD TD DD LD TD DD
0.005 0.107 0.205 0.164 0.086 0.162 0.125
7 0.05 0.120 0.224 0.177 0.080 0.158 0.116
0.5 0.165 0.242 0.185 0.086 0.162 0.119
(pc = 2.22 MPa) 1 0.122 0.209 0.190 0.066 0.130 0.116
5 0.126 0.186 0.189 0.072 0.138 0.123
0.005 0.106 0.205 0.165 0.092 0.170 0.126
5 0.05 0.123 0.284 0.184 0.080 0.165 0.118
0.5 0.140 0.242 0.193 0.086 0.164 0.121
(pc = 1.59 MPa) 1 0.126 0.198 0.185 0.068 0.128 0.117
5 0.104 0.181 0.170 0.073 0.143 0.124
0.005 0.123 0.228 0.191 0.102 0.184 0.132
3 0.05 0.152 0.257 0.202 0.096 0.167 0.120
0.5 0.161 0.259 0.120 0.089 0.163 0.122
(pc = 0.95 MPa) 1 0.142 0.273 0.198 0.070 0.126 0.118
5 0.111 0.205 0.189 0.071 0.148 0.126
Mean values 0.133 0.238 0.176 0.089 0.166 0.122

It can be observed that the sliding direction (longitudinal, transversal or median) influences the
tangential forces Ff and the friction coefficients. The highest values occur for the direction orthogonal
to the rolling direction (TD) and the lowest for the coefficient in the rolling direction (LD). So
regarding the mean values of Coulomb coefficients these ones are around of 80% higher along the TD
direction as compared to those of LD direction. These results confirm the higher influence of the
sliding stretching along the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal distribution of the surface
asperities (Figure 5). It is then necessary to define anisotropic friction law. Based on plastic theory
applied to description of metallic materials behaviour similar friction criteria can be defined using
maximal work principle and normal rule of convex surface friction loci [15]. Regarding the plastic
anisotropic Hill formulation (1) used to describe bulk anisotropic behaviour of AA2024-T351
aluminium alloy, in a similar way the following quadratic elliptic friction criterion Ψ is chosen:
Ψ (τ ) = Ψ (τ x ,τ y ) = G f τ x2 + H f τ y2 − λ 2 = 0 (2)
Here τ x ,τ y represent the axis components of surface tangential stress τ = τ x x + τ y y along the orthotropic
plate axis x (LD direction) and y (TD direction). Taking into account the orientation angle α of friction
shear stress τ the corresponding two components along the orthotropic surface axis are defined by
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

τ x = τ cos(α ) and τ y = τ sin(α ) . Because the sliding direction ng defined in the xy plane by an angle θ
is obtained from the normal of the convex friction criterion i.e. ng = −vg / vg = ( ∂Ψ / ∂τ ) ( ∂Ψ / ∂τ )
it can be shown that tg (θ ) = ( H f / G f ) tg (α ) , τ (α ) = µ f (α ) pc = µ f (θ ) pc and

µ f (θ ) = ( cos (θ ) / G ) + ( sin (θ ) / H ) . According to the friction values obtained for θ = 0° (LD

2
f
2
f

with α = 0°) and θ = 90° (TD with α = 90°) and taking into account the local Coulomb friction law
with τ (0°) = µ f (0°) pc and τ (90°) = µ f (90°) pc it is easy to verify from (2) that G f = 1 / µ 2f (0°) ,
H f = 1 / µ 2f (90°) and λ = pc . Consequently the anisotropic friction law can be written by:

(τ 2
x / µ 2f (0°) ) + (τ y2 / µ 2f (90°) ) = pc2 with µ f (θ ) = µ 2f (0°)cos2 (θ ) + µ 2f (90°)sin 2 (θ ) (3)

Regarding the mean values of contact pressure (pc = 1.58 MPa) and of frictions coefficients from
Table 3, in the case of the sliding along the median direction DD (θ = 45°) the corresponding friction
coefficients have a magnitude close to the root mean square of LD and TD values (0.193 for static
friction and 0.133 for kinetic friction, respectively 9%-9.5% error estimation) with a shear stress
orientation α ≈ 60° (Figure 8).
0,4 0,4
τy/pc (TD) τy /pc (TD)
0,3 0,3

ngs (DD)
0,2 (DD) 0,2
ngk

0,1 0,1
=60° =60°
θ=45° τx/pc (LD) θ=45° τx /pc (LD)
0 0
-0,4 -0,3 -0,2 -0,1 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 -0,4 -0,3 -0,2 -0,1 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4
-0,1 -0,1

-0,2 -0,2

µs(45°) = 0.176 (experimental) µk(45°) = 0.122 (experimental)

-0,3 -0,3
µs(45°) = 0.193 (estimation) µk(45°) =0.133 (estimation)

-0,4 -0,4

(a) (b)
Figure 8. Elliptic anisotropic friction criterion concerning rolled AA2024-T351/UHMWPE
polyethylene sliding contact; a) static friction; b) kinetic friction.
Consequently the above expression (3) describes with a good approximation the observed anisotropic
surface friction. Concerning the sliding velocities and the contact pressures these mechanical contact
variables have relatively small influences (10%-15%) on the estimated friction coefficients. A weak
maximum peak is reached especially for a sliding speed of 0.5 mm/s.

5 Tribological Fractal Analysis

Surface roughness has a large impact on the tribological phenomena such as contact mechanics,
friction, wear, lubrication, etc. When two flat surfaces are in contact, surface topography causes
discrete contact points. The mode of surface deformation may be elastic, elastic-plastic or plastic and
depends on surface topography, mechanical and physical material proprieties, normal and shear forces
or stresses. Fractal geometry method has been widely used in recent years and can be applied to
characterize surface topography and contacts mechanics [16,17]. According to the previous work of
authors concerning fractal surface geometry analysis of the anisotropic AA2024-T351 plate [13], the
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

purpose of the study is to investigate the fractal character of the friction coefficient evolution during
the transition between the static state and the kinetic one in the case of a sliding process between a
polyethylene disk and the rolled AA2024-T351 surface plate. It is then proposed to analyse the friction
curves of the Figure 7 corresponding to the higher contact pressure pc = 2.22 MPa (constant normal
force Fn = 7N) and the chosen constant five speeds. The fractal dimension of friction coefficient
variation Dµ can be computed using the following equations [16,17]:
4 − Ds
Dµ = , 0 < Ds < 2 (4)
2
The slope of this function Ds, plotted on double logarithmic coordinates, is estimated by using three
points defined by x fs = { x fs1 , x fs 2 , x fs 3 } , y fs = { y fs1 , y fs 2 , y fs 3 } of the structure function:

Ds = slope ( x fs , y fs ) (5)

The slope is a measure of the steepness of a line, or a section of a line, connecting two points and is
computed by finding the ratio m of the "vertical change" to the "horizontal change" between (any) two
distinct points on a line i.e. m = ∆y / ∆x. The friction structure function Sµ can be written as [17-19]:
1 N −k
S µ(N, k) = ∑ ( yi + k − yi )2
N − k i =1
(6)

Here k is the increment of x ordinate, k = 1…N-1 and N is the length of the y vector; here N = 2000,
except the tests for 0.5 mm/s where N = 500 and 1 mm/s where N = 400. The straight line that
approximates the structure function Sµ can be determined in function of xf = 0,0.01,...,2. as following:
y f ( x f ) = Ds ⋅ x f + y fs1 − Ds ⋅ x fs1 (7)

Figure 9. Log-Log curves (structure function-correlation length) and the straight line (yf(xf)) for
Fn=7N and v=0.005mm/s; (a) longitudinal direction (LD); (b) transversal direction (TD); (c) median
direction (DD).

Figure 10. Log-Log curves (structure function-correlation length) and the straight line (yf(xf)) for
Fn=7N and v=0.05mm/s; (a) longitudinal direction (LD); (b) transversal direction (TD); (c) median
direction (DD).
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

Figure 11. Log-Log curves (structure function-correlation length) and the straight line (yf(xf)) for
Fn=7N and v=0.5mm/s; (a) longitudinal direction (LD); (b) transversal direction (TD); (c) median
direction (DD).

Figure 12. Log-Log curves (structure function-correlation length) and the straight line (yf(xf)) for
Fn=7N and v=1mm/s; (a) longitudinal direction (LD); (b) transversal direction (TD) ; (c) median
direction (DD).

Figure 13. Log-Log curves (structure function-correlation length) and the straight line (yf(xf)) for
Fn=7N and v=5mm/s; (a) longitudinal direction (LD); (b) transversal direction (TD); (c) median
direction (DD).

The figures 9-13 describe the log-log curves (friction structure function - correlation length) and the
corresponding straight line (yf(xf), where (yf = log(Sµ(N,k) and xf = log(k)) that approximates the
friction structure function variation of measurements along the three directions (LD, TD and DD).
From the plotted log-log curves and the corresponding straight line (yf(xf)) it can be observed that the
friction coefficient evolution, especially during the transition between static and kinetic sliding,
reveals a fractal character up to 20 time’s increment point (around a sliding distance of 0.025 mm) for
v=0.5mm/s, v=1mm/s,v=5mm/s and up to 80 time’s increment point (around a sliding distance of
0.150 mm) for v=0.05mm/s. For the lowest speed (v=0.005mm/s) the friction coefficient variation
doesn't have a fractal character (*). The computed values of the friction fractal dimension Dµ for all
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

measurements are presented in Table 4 and Table 5.

Table 4. The friction fractal dimension values for v=0.005mm/s, v=0.05mm/s and v=0.5mm/s (Fn=7N).
Friction Fractal Dimension Dµ
Fn=7N; v=0.005mm/s Fn=7N; v=0.05mm/s Fn=7N; v=0.5mm/s
LD TD DD LD TD DD LD TD DD
* * * 1.305 1.202 1.226 1.384 1.284 1.393
Table 5. The friction fractal dimension values for v=1mm/s, v=5mm/s (Fn=7N).
Fiction Fractal Dimension Dµ
Fn=7N; v=1mm/s Fn=7N; v=5mm/s
LD TD DD LD TD DD
1.526 1.346 1.406 1.716 1.623 1.605

It can be shown that the computed friction fractal dimension is increasing with the speed and have
relatively similar values for TD and DD directions. The higher values are obtained for sliding along
the rolling direction LD. All these friction fractal information show that concerning the measuring of a
steady state kinetic friction it can be used measurements values of tangential forces for a distance
sliding between 0.025 mm and 0.150 mm. Furthermore the computed friction fractal dimension Dµ
can be used to estimate an average ratio between the static friction coefficient and the kinetics one.

6 Conclusions
The main purpose of this scientific study was to determine the influence of material anisotropy on the
sliding of an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) disk over a rolled aluminium
alloy AA2024-T351 plate in the range of low and moderate sliding speeds. Starting from previous
works rheological elastic and plastic parameters of an anisotropic plastic Hill criterion has presented to
describe and understand the bulk anisotropy of studied aluminium rolled plate. To characterise surface
friction properties a lot of tribologic tests have been performed using the movement of a polyethylene
disk along a linear trajectory (3mm) under a constant normal force (three different forces: 3N, 5N, 7N)
and at constant sliding speeds (0.005 mm/s, 0.05 mm/s, 0.5 mm/s, 1mm/s, 5mm/s). All the
experimental tests were made along three directions: a longitudinal one (LD or 0º), corresponding to
the rolling direction of the sample, a transversal one (TD or 90º), which represents the direction
perpendicular to the rolling direction and a median direction (DD or 45º). According to the obtained
results it can be concluded that the rolling AA2024-T351 thick plate has anisotropic tribologic
properties. So the sliding direction influences the friction coefficient: the lowest coefficient occurs for
the longitudinal direction, the highest for the transversal direction and a root square mean value for the
median direction. It has been also observed that Coulomb coefficients have a relatively small variation
with the sliding speeds and contact pressure and reaching maximum values generally for a sliding
speed of 0.5 mm/s. A quadratic elliptic function has been identified to describe the observed
anisotropic surface friction with an average error around of 10%. Furthermore the variation of the
friction force or of the Coulomb friction coefficient versus time does not describe a stick-slip sliding
generally characterising small and very small sliding speeds due to the nature of polyethylene surface
properties. Concerning the analysis of the transitions between the static friction and the steady sliding
state, the investigation of the friction coefficient evolution reveals a fractal character. The log-log
curves (friction structure function-correlation length), the straight line (yf(xf)) and the fractal
dimension shows a friction fractal character up to 0.025 mm – 0.150 mm sliding distance, except for
the very small sliding speed (0.005 mm/s). Differences of fractal friction dimensions along the three
23ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Lille, 28 Août au 1er Septembre 2017

orthotropic material directions confirm the anisotropic tribologic properties observed by the material
surface topography and Coulomb friction coefficients estimation.

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