Contact area

About: Contact area is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 12358 publications have been published within this topic receiving 256401 citations. The topic is also known as: contact patch & contact region.

Tribology of Skin: Review and Analysis of Experimental Results for the Friction Coefficient of Human Skin

Abstract: In this review, we discuss the current knowledge on the tribology of human skin and present an analysis of the available experimental results for skin friction coefficients. Starting with an overview on the factors influencing the friction behaviour of skin, we discuss the up-to-date existing experimental data and compare the results for different anatomical skin areas and friction measurement techniques. For this purpose, we also estimated and analysed skin contact pressures applied during the various friction measurements. The detailed analyses show that substantial variations are a characteristic feature of friction coefficients measured for skin and that differences in skin hydration are the main cause thereof, followed by the influences of surface and material properties of the contacting materials. When the friction coefficients of skin are plotted as a function of the contact pressure, the majority of the literature data scatter over a wide range that can be explained by the adhesion friction model. The case of dry skin is reflected by relatively low and pressure-independent friction coefficients (greater than 0.2 and typically around 0.5), comparable to the dry friction of solids with rough surfaces. In contrast, the case of moist or wet skin is characterised by significantly higher (typically >1) friction coefficients that increase strongly with decreasing contact pressure and are essentially determined by the mechanical shear properties of wet skin. In several studies, effects of skin deformation mechanisms contributing to the total friction are evident from friction coefficients increasing with contact pressure. However, the corresponding friction coefficients still lie within the range delimited by the adhesion friction model. Further research effort towards the analysis of the microscopic contact area and mechanical properties of the upper skin layers is needed to improve our so far limited understanding of the complex tribological behaviour of human skin.

The shear properties of Langmuir-Blodgett layers

Abstract: The sliding friction between two highly oriented monolayers has been studied by using molecularly smooth mica substrates in the form of contacting orthogonal cylinders. The monolayers in the form of various normal alipathic carboxylic acids and their soaps were deposited with the aid of the Langmuir-Blodgett technique by transfer from aqueous substrates. The normal alkyl group has been varied in length from 14 to 22 methylene repeat units. Data are reported also on the influence of partial saponification of the carboxylic acid and fluorination of the alkyl chain. Most of the investigation has been confined to two contacting single monolayers although a limited amount of data is presented for multilayers sliding over one another. The character of the sliding motion depends not only on the machine but also on the monolayers, particularly their chemistry. Most of the monolayers studied provide a continuous rate of energy dissipation. However, a small number, such as certain soaps, show discontinuous or stick-slip motion. The experimental arrangement allows simultaneous measurement of the sliding frictional force, contact area and film thickness to be made during sliding. In some experiments this friction is the monotonic sliding friction but in others it is the mean maximum value during the stick phase. The film thickness measurement is accurate to 0.2 mm which allows a precise assessment of the shear plane during sliding. In all cases the monolayers and multilayers were found to be extremely durable and shear invariably occurred at the original interface between the monolayers. The sliding friction data are presented as the dynamic specific friction force or interface shear strength, and a number of contact variables have been examined. These include the applied normal load per unit contact area or mean contact pressure, the temperature and the sliding velocity. The interface shear strength is found, to a good approximation, to increase linearly with mean contact pressure but to decrease linearly with temperature in the ranges studied. The influence of sliding velocity is more complex. In the case where intermittent motion is detected the mean maximum values decrease linearly with the logarithm of the velocity.

An Ultrasonic Study of the Area of Contact between Stationary and Sliding Surfaces

Abstract: This paper describes a novel attempt to determine quantitatively the area of contact between stationary and sliding contacts by means of an ultrasonic technique. The basic idea is to generate an ultrasonic wave in one body and measure the impulse passing into the second body through the interface. Analysis shows that the transmitted pulse depends on the elastic stiffness of the interface. According to theory the stiffness of a single circular contact is pro­portional to the diameter of the contact and not to its area and this has been confirmed by simple scaled-up experiments. Because of this the stiffness of multiple contacts is not determined unequivocally by the true area of contact. The scaled-up experiments show that for widely separated contacts the stiffness is the sum of the stiffnesses of the individual con­tacts; if they are close together it is determined primarily by the size of the embracing circle of contact. Only when the apparent area of contact is more than ten times the true area does the effect of the empty spaces on the stiffness become appreciable. The ultrasonic experiments confirm all these conclusions and the technique has been applied to the static contact between metals, between smooth and rough glass, between rubber and between polymers. In some cases the results are able to distinguish between elastic and plastic deformation in the contact zone. The technique has been extended to sliding contacts and the results show that with ductile materials junction growth may occur. Although the ultrasonic method suffers from the major disadvantage in that it cannot unequivocally distinguish between the true and the apparent area of contact it has the great advantage that, in contrast to electrical resistance measurements, it can be used for non-metals and is scarcely affected by the presence of oxide films. Again in contrast to optical methods, it can be used with opaque materials.

Drag reduction on a patterned superhydrophobic surface

Abstract: We present an experimental study of a low-Reynolds number shear flow between two surfaces, one of which has a regular grooved texture augmented with a superhydrophobic coating. The combination reduces the effective fluid-surface contact area, thereby appreciably decreasing the drag on the surface and effectively changing the macroscopic boundary condition on the surface from no slip to limited slip. We measure the force on the surface and the velocity field in the immediate vicinity on the surface (and thus the wall shear) simultaneously. The latter facilitates a direct assessment of the effective slip length associated with the drag reduction.

Drop evaporation on solid surfaces: constant contact angle mode

Abstract: There are two pure modes of evaporation of liquid drops on surfaces: one at constant contact area and one at constant contact angle. Constant contact area mode is the dominating evaporation mode f...