Search results for "Static friction"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
Fracture mechanics of snow avalanches.
2001
Dense snow avalanches are analyzed by modeling the snow slab as an elastic and brittle plate, attached by static friction to the underlying ground. The grade of heterogeneity in the local fracture (slip) thresholds, and the ratio of the average substrate slip threshold to the average slab fracture threshold, are the decisive parameters for avalanche dynamics. For a strong pack of snow there appears a stable precursor of local slips when the frictional contacts are weakened (equivalent to rising temperature), which eventually trigger a catastrophic crack growth that suddenly releases the entire slab. In the opposite limit of very high slip thresholds, the slab simply melts when the temperatu…
Conditions for static friction between flat crystalline surfaces
2000
The conditions for the presence of static friction between two atomically smooth crystalline surfaces are investigated. Commensurate and incommensurate walls are studied. While two commensurate walls always pin at zero lateral force and positive pressures, incommensurate walls only pin if mobile atoms are present in the interface between the surfaces or if the solids are particularly soft. Surprisingly, static friction can be observed between rigid surfaces, either commensurate or incommensurate, that are separated by a freely diffusing fluid layer.
Analysis of static friction and elastic forces in a nanowire bent on a flat surface: A comparative study
2014
ZnO nanowires bent to a complex shape and held in place by static friction force from supporting flat surface are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The complex shapes are obtained by bending the nanowires inside a scanning electron microscope with a sharp tip attached to a nanopositioner. Several methods previously described in the literature are applied along with author's original method to calculate the distributed friction force and stored elastic energy in the nanowires from the bending profile. This comparative study evidences the importance of the usage of appropriate models for accurate analysis of the nanowires profile. It is demonstrated that incomplete models can lea…
Simple Microscopic Theory of Amontons' Laws for Static Friction
2001
A microscopic theory for the ubiquitous phenomenon of static friction is presented. Interactions between two surfaces are modeled by an energy penalty that increases exponentially with the degree of surface overlap. The resulting static friction is proportional to load, in accordance with Amontons' laws. However the friction coefficient between bare surfaces vanishes as the area of individual contacts grows, except in the rare case of commensurate surfaces. An area independent friction coefficient is obtained for any surface geometry when an adsorbed layer of mobile atoms is introduced between the surfaces. The predictions from our simple analytic model are confirmed by atomistically detail…