Control of friction characteristics of elastic members using near-surface microstructure

摘要

An elastic member is provided having a near-surface structure including a microstructure for controlling friction. A fibril thin film termination type array with an angular film / fibril junction shows an unexpectedly large increase in adhesion, static friction, and sliding friction. This increase is obtained in contact with a rough surface indenter. Elongated ridges and valleys end-to-end arrays unexpectedly exhibit low adhesion and an unexpectedly large increase in sliding friction. The thin film terminated ridge / valley design results in an anisotropic structure with direction dependent friction properties. The increase in the sliding frictional force changes depending on the distance between the fibrils, and corresponds to a mode in which the end thin film is distorted. Near-surface structures are designed with different scales and different parameters to provide performance characteristics tailored to different applications. As an example, thin film terminated ridge / valley arrangements are incorporated into motor vehicle tires to provide rolling resistance and high sliding friction that allow high performance braking during operation.