6,968 research outputs found
Effects of Defects on Friction for a Xe Film Sliding on Ag(111)
The effects of a step defect and a random array of point defects (such as
vacancies or substitutional impurities) on the force of friction acting on a
xenon monolayer film as it slides on a silver (111) substrate are studied by
molecular dynamic simulations and compared with the results of lowest order
perturbation theory in the substrate corrugation potential. For the case of a
step, the magnitude and velocity dependence of the friction force are strongly
dependent on the direction of sliding respect to the step and the corrugation
strength. When the applied force F is perpendicular to the step, the film is
pinned forF less than a critical force Fc. Motion of the film along the step,
however, is not pinned. Fluctuations in the sliding velocity in time provide
evidence of both stick-slip motion and thermally activated creep. Simulations
done with a substrate containing a 5 percent concentration of random point
defects for various directions of the applied force show that the film is
pinned for the force below a critical value. The critical force, however, is
still much lower than the effective inertial force exerted on the film by the
oscillations of the substrate in experiments done with a quartz crystal
microbalance (QCM). Lowest order perturbation theory in the substrate potential
is shown to give results consistent with the simulations, and it is used to
give a physical picture of what could be expected for real surfaces which
contain many defects.Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures, latex plus postscript files for figure
Theory of a Possible Mechanism for Lubrication and Surface Protection by an Electrically Neutral Hydrogels
It is demonstrated that polymers sticking out of the surface of a neutral
hydrogel are capable of preventing adhesive forces from pulling a hydrogel into
close contact with a surface against which it is pressed. The proposed
mechanism for lubrication or surface protection suggests a possible mechanism
for protecting the cornea from a contact lens, which is held against the eye by
Laplace pressure. This mechanism, however, is only able to keep a gel coated
surface from sticking to a surface against which it is pressed, if the gel and
surface are bathed in fluid. Expected optical properties of the gel-surface
interface are discussed, in order to suggest possible ways to study the
gel-solid interface experimentally
Anomalous pinning behavior in an incommensurate two-chain model of friction
Pinning phenomena in an incommensurate two-chain model of friction are
studied numerically. The pinning effect due to the breaking of analyticity
exists in the present model. The pinning behavior is, however, quite different
from that for the breaking of analyticity state of the Frenkel-Kontorova model.
When the elasticity of chains or the strength of interchain interaction is
changed, pinning force and maximum static frictional force show anomalously
complicated behavior accompanied by a successive phase transition and they
vanish completely under certain conditions.Comment: RevTex, 9 pages, 19 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B58 No.23(1998
- …