Periodic buckling and grain boundary slips in a colloidal model of solid friction.
Soft Matter
; 15(26): 5227-5233, 2019 Jul 14.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31225580
ABSTRACT
The intermittent 'stick-slip' dynamics in frictional sliding of solid bodies is common in everyday life and technology. This dynamics has been widely studied on a macroscopic scale, where the thermal motion can usually be neglected. However, the microscopic mechanisms behind the periodic stick-slip events are yet unclear. We employ confocal microscopy of colloidal spheres, to study the frictional dynamics at the boundary between two quasi-two-dimensional (2D) crystalline grains, with a single particle resolution. Such unprecedentedly-detailed observations of the microscopic-scale frictional solid-on-solid sliding have never been previously carried out. At this scale, the particles undergo an intense thermal motion, which masks the avalanche-like nature of the underlying frictional dynamics. We demonstrate that the underlying sliding dynamics involving out-of-plane buckling events, is intermittent and periodic, like in macroscopic friction. However, unlike in the common models of friction, the observed periodic frictional dynamics is promoted, rather than just suppressed, by the thermal noise, which maximizes the entropy of the system.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Soft Matter
Year:
2019
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Israel