Vehicle Tribology

1 Concept of Friction
 Vehicle Tribology
2 Concept of Friction
1. Theory of friction
2. Laws of friction
3. Possible causes of friction
4. The adhesion theory of friction
 Simple theory
 Modified adhesion theory
 Adhesion theory of metals with contaminant films
 Criticism of adhesion theory
5. Plastic interaction of surface asperities
6. Ploughing effect
7. Discussion and criticism of various friction theories
 Concept of Friction
3 Theory of Friction
Friction is the resistance to motion during sliding or rolling, which
is experienced when one solid body moves tangentially over
another with which it is in contact.
The resistive tangential force, which acts in a direction directly
opposite to the direction of motion, is called the friction force.
There are two main types of friction that are commonly
encountered: Dry friction and Fluid friction.
Dry friction, also called “Coulomb” friction, describes the
tangential component of the contact force that exists when two
dry surfaces move or tend to move relative to one another.
Fluid friction describes the tangential component of the contact
force that exists between adjacent layers in a fluid that are
moving at different velocities relative to each other as in a liquid
or gas between bearing surfaces.
 Concept of Friction
4 Theory of Friction
If the solid bodies are loaded together and a tangential force (F) is
applied, then the value of the tangential force that is required to
initiate motion is the static friction force, Fs.
It may take a few milliseconds before relative motion is initiated at
the interface. The tangential force required to maintain relative
motion is known as the kinetic (or dynamic) friction force, Fk .
The static friction force is generally higher than or equal to the
kinetic friction force.
 Concept of Friction
5 Theory of Friction
If two solid surfaces are clean without chemical films and
adsorbates, high friction occurs. Surface contaminants or thin films
affect friction.
With well-lubricated surfaces due to weak adhesion, less friction
are generally observed. However, a small quantity of liquid present
at the interface results in liquid-mediated adhesion, which may
result in high friction, especially between two smooth surfaces.
Friction forces can be either good or bad. Without friction it would
be impossible to walk, use automobile tires on a roadway, or pick
up objects.
Even in some machine applications such as vehicle brakes and
clutches and frictional transmission of power (such as belt drives),
friction is maximized. However, in most other sliding and rotating
components such as bearings and seals, friction is undesirable.
Friction causes energy loss and wear of moving surfaces in
contact.
 Concept of Friction
6 Theory of Friction
Static friction is generally higher than kinetic friction
 Concept of Friction
7 Laws of Friction

In 1699 the French physicist Guillaume Amontons discovered

empirically two basic rules of friction which are generally obeyed
over a wide range of applications. These rules are often referred to
as Amontons equations.
First Law (Rule)
The first law states that the friction force, F, is directly proportional
to the nominal load, W, that is, F α W, or
F = µW where μ is known as coefficient of friction
For static friction the proportionality coefficient is represented as
μs and for kinetic friction, μk.
Note that µ is constant only for a given pair of sliding materials
under a set of given ambient conditions and varies for different
materials and conditions.
 Concept of Friction
8 Laws of Friction

For example a hard steel surface rubbing against similar surface

under normal atmospheric conditions would typically have a value
of µ equal to 0.6. the same combination rubbing under vacuum
conditions would have a much higher value of µ.
A graphite on graphite combination in normal atmosphere has a
value of µ equal to about 0.1 but if the atmosphere is dry, this
value may go up to 0.5.
It is often convenient to express this rule in terms of constant angle
of repose or frictional angle θ defined by: μs = tan θ
 Concept of Friction
9 Laws of Friction

Here θ is the angle such that any body of any weight, placed on a
plane inclined at an angle less than θ from the horizontal, will
remain stationary, but if the inclination angle is more than θ, the
body will start to slide down.
 Concept of Friction
10 Laws of Friction
Second Law
The second law states that the friction force (or coefficient of
friction) is independent of the apparent area of contact between
the contacting bodies.
Thus two bodies, regardless of their physical size, have the same
coefficient of friction.
Third Law
To these two rules, a third rule is sometimes added which is often
attributed to Coulomb (1785).
It states that the kinetic friction force (or coefficient of friction) is
independent of the sliding velocity once motion starts. He also
made a clear distinction between static friction and kinetic friction.
These three rules are entirely empirical; situations in which these
rules are not followed do not imply violation of more fundamental
laws of nature.
 Concept of Friction
11 Possible Causes of Friction

We know that friction must be due to some interaction between

the opposing surfaces and finaly this results in resistance to
relative motion.
As the surfaces move relative to one another, work is done by
the forces causing the motion, that is there is an energy loss at
the contacting surfaces.
To study the possible causes of friction, it is easy to consider
separately the surface interaction and the mechanism of
energy loss.
 Concept of Friction
12 Possible Causes of Friction
Surface Interaction

Fig (a)

Asperity interlocking – motion cannot take

place without deformation of the asperities
 Concept of Friction
13 Possible Causes of Friction

Surface Interactions
When two surfaces are loaded together they can adhere over
some part of the contact and this adhesion is therefore one
form of surface interaction causing friction.
If no adhesion takes place then the only alternative interaction
which results in a resistance to motion is one in which material
must be deformed and displaced to accommodate the relative
motion.
We need to consider only these two interactions types.
Referring to figure (a) it is obvious that the relative motion
between surfaces A and B cannot take place without
displacement of the material of asperities.
 Concept of Friction
14 Possible Causes of Friction
A second example of the displacement type of interaction is
illustrated in Figure (b).
Here a hard sphere A is loaded against a relatively soft flat
surface, B. In order for relative motion to take place some of the
material B must be displaced. Although the surfaces of both
sphere A and flat B will be rough on a microscopic scale, the
material displacement at the individual asperities will be small.
Thus we have two types of surface interaction, Adhesion and
Material Displacement.

Fig (b)
 Concept of Friction
15 The Adhesion Theory of Friction
Simple Theory
When metal surfaces are loaded against each other, they make
contact only at the tips of the asperities. Because the real
contact area is small the pressure over the contacting asperities
is assumed high enough to cause them to deform plastically.
This plastic flow of contacts cause an increase in the area of
contact until the real area of contact is just sufficient to support
the load.
Under these conditions, for an ideal
elastic-plastic material,
Apo = W, where
A is the real area of contact,
po is the yield pressure of the metal
and W is the normal load.
 Concept of Friction
16 The Adhesion Theory of Friction
Simple Theory
According to Bowden and Tabor, over the regions of close metal
to metal contact, a strong adhesion takes place, and that the
junctions ‘cold weld’ together.
If ‘s’ is the force per unit area of contact necessary to shear the
junctions, that is, s is the shear stress necessary to cause plastic
flow and final fracture and F is the friction force, then:
F=As+pe
where pe is a term introduced by Bowden and Tabor to take into
account of the force required to ‘plough’ hard asperities through
a softer surface, that is a material displacement interaction
causing plastic deformation.
For most situations involving unlubricated metals pe is small
compared with As and may be neglected.
Ignoring ploughing term, F = As = Ws/po
 Concept of Friction
17 The Adhesion Theory of Friction
Simple Theory
 F = As = Ws/po and µ = F/W = s/po ( As/W = )
Thus, this theory provides an explanation the two laws of
friction, that is the friction is independent of the apparent area
of contact and the friction is proportional to load.

In the above analysis we have considered an ideal elastic–

plastic material, and we have ignored the effects of work–
hardening. Therefore it is reasonable to take ‘s’ equal to so, the
critical shear stress and both po and so must refer to the softer
of the two metals.
Now μ=so/po
It has been noticed that the ratio so / po is fairly constant for
 Concept of Friction
18 The Adhesion Theory of Friction
Simple Theory
The above analysis gives an explanation why the friction
coefficient of a large range of metals varies little, while their
mechanical properties, for example, hardness, vary large.
In the case of two hard metals: po is high; A is low and so is high.
For soft metals: po is low, so is low but A is large.
To obtain lower coefficient of friction one way is to deposit a thin
layer of soft metal on to a hard substrate. Now, the load carrying
capacity is increased due to the substrate and po is the yield
pressure for the substrate(pohigh). However, shearing takes place
in the soft metal layer and the critical shear stress of the soft
metal is the value we must use to find µ and therefore,
μ=so(soft)/po(hard) = Low
 Concept of Friction
19 Modified Adhesion Theory
The simple adhesion theory has been criticized for a number of
reasons and it can be shown to be inadequate by a comparison
of the absolute values of the friction coefficient predicted by the
simple theory and those found experimentally.
For most metals so is about one fifth of po and therefore the
simple adhesion theory predicts that μ ≈ 0.2
Many metal combinations in air give a friction coefficient higher
than 0.5 and metal in high vacuum give much higher values of
μ.
This led Bowden and Tabor to re-examine some of the
assumptions in the simple theory, and to present a modified and
more realistic description of friction in terms of adhesion.
 Concept of Friction
20 Modified Adhesion Theory
The fact that very high values of friction are obtained for metals
under high vacuum conditions where adhesion is unhampered by
oxide films or other contaminants indicates that the real contact
area must be considerably larger than as indicated by the simple
theory.
In the simple theory it was assumed that A is defined by the yield
pressure of the softer metal po and the normal load W. This is
approximately true for static contact but in the case of friction,
where a tangential force is also applied, yielding must take place as
a result of the combined normal and shear stresses.
Yielding occurs when the maximum shear stress attains a critical
value.
We can find the maximum shear stress in the system by using the
Mohr’s circle.
 Concept of Friction
21 Modified Adhesion Theory
The maximum shear stress is the radius R of the circle therefore
(p/2)2+s2=R2
When R reaches the critical resolved shear stress, yielding takes
place. From this it is easy to see that yielding is dependent on the
action of the combined stresses and not on p alone.
Shear
Stress

Normal
Stress
 Concept of Friction
22 Modified Adhesion Theory
We will now examine how consideration of the combined stresses
affects the value of the real area of contact in an asperity junction.
First consider a single asperity contact under a normal load W.
Assume the area of contact be A where W/A = po.
If a tangential force is applied up to a value F, further plastic flow will
take place.
This flow causes an increase in the contact area, that is, junction growth
will start due to the superposition of the shear stress on the normal
stress.
The normal and the shear stress caused by the normal and shear
forces must decrease as the area over which the force act increases
and junction growth continues.
The exact solution how it happens is not known but we will assume the
solution for the 3-dimensional case is of the form,
p2 + αs2 = k2 , where α and k are constants such that,
 Concept of Friction
23 Modified Adhesion Theory
(W/A)2+α(F/A)2=k2 -------------- (1)

where A is the area of contact of the junction.

Now if s is zero, the pressure over the junction must be po and
therefore, (previous slide)
k2 = po2
That is p2+αs2=po2 -------------- (2)

If F increases to very large values then junction growth continues

until W/A is small in comparison with F/A in which case we can
write,
αs2≈ po2
In this case s must be approximately equal to so, the critical shear
stress. Therefore, αso2 ≈ po2
 Concept of Friction
24 Modified Adhesion Theory
However, experimental results indicate that α should have
a value some what lower than 25 and Bowden and Tebor
assume that α=9.
this also implies that po=3so

The exact value of α does not greatly affect the amount of

junction growth taking place in many practical cases.
 Concept of Friction
25 Modified Adhesion Theory
Thus, from equations 1 and 2 we have,

A2=(W/po)2 + α(F/po)2

W/po is the area of contact as per simple theory in which only

the effect of normal load is considered.
The term α(F/po)2 represents the increase caused by the
shear or friction force.
Thus, for clean metal surfaces (that is metals in high
vacuum) large scale junction growth is possible, resulting in
very high friction coefficients.
In normal atmosphere metals are covered by oxide or other
contaminant film.
 Concept of Friction
26 Adhesion Theory of Metals with Contaminant Films
Consider an asperity junction under normal load W and a
gradually increasing shear force F.
We assume that at the junction there is a thin contaminating film
with critical shear stress sf.
We also assume sf = cso where so is the critical shear stress for
the metal and c<1, while F and A have values such that F/A<sf.
Then junction growth will proceed as described previously for
uncontaminated metals.
However, when F/A=sf then the contaminating film will shear,
junction growth will end, and gross sliding will occur.
Thus, the condition for the start of gross sliding is:
p2+αs2f =po2 But, po2 = α so2
Therefore, p2+αs2f =αso2
2 2 2 2
 Concept of Friction
27 Adhesion Theory of Metals with Contaminant Films
Therefore sf/p = c/[α(1–c2)]1/2
The coefficient of friction μ = F/W = sfA/pA
Thus μ=c/[α(1–c2)]1/2 _____
(3)
As c tends to 1, μ tends to infinity, in agreement with the results
obtained for uncontaminated metals.
Value of μ drops rapidly as c reduces from unity.
Thus a small amount of weakening at the interface produces a drastic
reduction in μ.
When c is small equation (3) can be written as:

μ=c/α1/2
But α1/2 = po/so

Therefore μ = c so/po = sf/po

That is μ = critical shear stress of the interface divided by yield
pressure of the bulk metal
This is a more realistic theory. Although it is based on a simple model
and contains a number of assumptions, it is able to explain a range of
 Concept of Friction
28 Adhesion Theory of Metals with Contaminant Films

However, it is no longer exclusively an adhesion theory.

The main points of the theory are:
 The real contact area is defined by plastic deformation
 The two rubbing surfaces are separated by a film of shear
strength which can vary from low values up to the bulk shear
stress of the substrate material.
 The friction force is the force required to shear the
separating film.
 Concept of Friction
29 Criticism of Adhesion Theory
If two hard metals are rubbed together under atmospheric conditions,
in general no adhesive component normal to the surface can be
detected when the normal force has been released. Bowden and Tabor
answer this by pointing out that the adhesion under rubbing conditions
occurs while the normal force is exerted. To measure adhesion in the
normal direction the normal load must first be released and elastic
recovery will break many of the bonds during this process.

The adhesion theory of friction can explain the transfer of material from
one rubbing surface to the other but offers no explanation of the
formation of loose wear debris. Experimental work has shown that
transfer occurs during single transversals but subsequent transversals
on the same track produce loose wear particles. This suggests a
possible change of mechanism during the rubbing process. It may be
significant that much of the experiment work carried out by Bowden
and Tabor, giving results consistent with the adhesion theory, consisted
of single rather than multiple pass experiments.
 Concept of Friction
30 Criticism of Adhesion Theory

The adhesion theory is based on plastic deformation of asperities.

On continued rubbing under condition of low wear, work hardening
may take place and a proportion of asperity contacts will now deform
elastically.
However, although the deformation of the asperities is now largely
elastic, the area of contact is still related to the previous plastic
deformation. This can be understood by considering an individual
asperity contact under an initial normal load W.
If the load is now released and reapplied upto a maximum value of W,
the deformation is elastic but the total deformation or strain is exactly
the same as in the plastic deformation case.
 Concept of Friction
31 Plastic Interaction Of Surface Asperities

In the Bowden and Tabor theory, the normal and yield stress on
a single asperity were assumed to be representative of the
stresses of all asperities.
No consideration was given to the possibility that at a single
asperity, s and p could vary with time over large ranges so that
s/p ratio could also vary.
This type of theory was first introduced by Green and later
extended by Edwards and Halling.
The basis of this analysis is that in the sliding of
macroscopically flat surfaces the motion is parallel to the
surface
 Concept of Friction
32 Ploughing Effect
Ploughing is caused by asperities on a hard metal penetrating into
a softer metal and ploughing out a groove by plastic flow in the
softer metal.
This is a major component of friction during abrasion processes.
Consider a hard material whose surface is composed of a large
number of similar conical asperities of semi-angle θ in contact with
a softer material whose surface is comparatively flat.
During rubbing only the front surface of each conical asperity is in
contact with the opposing material and the vertically projected
area of contact is given by:
A=n.Лr2/2
where n is the total number of asperities
W = Apo = po.n.Лr2/2
The friction force F is obtained in a similar manner by considering
the total projected area of the material which is being displaced by
plastic flow.
 Concept of Friction
33 Ploughing Effect

Asperity of hard material

Soft material
 Concept of Friction
34 Ploughing Effect
 Considering the total projected area of material which is being
displaced by plastic flow, that is F = nrhpo
Therefore μ = F/W = 2h/Лr
But, h/r = cot θ
Therefore μ = cot θ
Using this approach:
μ = ½ of the vertical projected area of the asperity divided by
horizontal projected area of the asperity.
Above theory assumes that the yield pressure is the same in the
vertical and horizontal direction.
For asperities on most metal surfaces, the angle θ so large that
the ploughing term is negligible in comparison with the adhesion
term. For rough surfaces where θ is smaller, the ploughing term
can be comparable.
 Concept of Friction
35 Discussion and Criticism of Various Friction Theories
Out of the various friction theories, Bowden and Tabor’s
‘Adhesion Theory’ and the ‘Interacting Asperity Theory’ explain
reasonably the friction theory.
Many features of both theories are similar.
 The deformation in both theories is plastic. That is the area of
contact is defined by the flow stress, and the major source of
frictional energy losses are due to plastic deformation.
 Both theories include the effects due to a surface film of shear
strength equal to or lower than the bulk shear strength of the
softer of the two metals in contact.
 The interlocking asperity theory appears to be more
satisfactory of the two and offers the possibility of further
extension to include the rubbing of surfaces with a realistic
asperity height distribution resulting in both elastic and plastic