Role of hysteresis in the molecular picture of friction

Abstract

A constrained Monte Carlo technique was used to study the effects of hysteresis on the friction curve (shear yield stress s. normal stress) for an ideal microscopic contact: two rigid crystalline surfaces separated by a mobile adsorbed film. The constraint in the form of an auxiliary external field corresponds to the relaxation time for migration of admolecules relative to the time required for a measurement. Wide variation in the form of the friction curve with the (relative) relaxation time shows that hysteresis (irreversibility) must be incorporated into a complete molecular picture of friction.