Sliding friction. Physical principles and applications (Q1377908)

This work is one of few books entirely devoted to fundamental scientific aspects of friction developed during the last quarter of a century. The topic of the book is of great theoretical interest and important from a technological point of view. The book consists of fifteen chapters organized as follows. After some introductory remarks in chapter 1, a brief survey of the evolution of knowledge about friction is reported in chapter 2. Chapter 3 gives an excellent review of modern experimental techniques, and the surface topography and surface contaminants of friction are presented in chapter 4. In chapter 5, physical processes are discussed which determine the formation and behavior of microscale and nanoscale junctions, including elastic and plastic deformations, and some experimental methods which have been used to estimate the junctions are considered. The sliding on clean or dry surfaces is examined in chapter 6, that on lubricated surfaces in chapter 7, and that on adsorbate layers in chapter 8. Here, the author explains the hydrodynamic lubrication, the electronic and phononic friction, the linear and nonlinear sliding friction, the solid-fluid heat transfer, and the role of defects at sliding velocity, including various applications. Some aspects of boundary lubrication are presented in chapter 9, a complete treatment of friction dynamics of boundary lubricated surfaces in chapter 12, and that of dry friction dynamics in chapter 13. Chapter 10 focuses on elastic interactions and instability transactions, and chapter 11 on stress domains, relaxation and creep. Chapter 14 is very interesting and illustrates different physical phenomena governed by physical principles of friction such as the earthquake dynamics, the lubrication of human and animal joints, the muscle contraction, the internal friction, the rolling resistance and alike. Though the computational methods are put aside, this well-written and self-contained book provides a comprehensive and unified treatment of sliding friction, it is readable by anyone with engineering and physics background and it is highly recommended to those interested in friction.