Abstract
Superlubricity and active friction control have been extensively researched in order to reduce the consumption of fossil energy, the failure of moving parts, and the waste of materials. The vibration-induced superlubricity (VIS) presents a promising solution for friction reduction since it does not require high-standard environment. However, the mechanism underlying the VIS remains unclear since the atomic-scale information in a buried interface is unavailable to experimental methods. In this paper, the mechanism of VIS was examined via numerical calculation based on the Prandtl—Tomlinson (PT) model and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results revealed that the pushing effect of stick—slip is one of the direct sources of friction reduction ability under vibrational excitation, which was affected by the response amplitude, frequency, and the trace of the tip. Moreover, the proportion of this pushing effect could be modulated by changing the phase difference when applying coupled vibrational excitation in x- and z-axis. This results in a significant change in friction reduction ability with phase. By this way, active friction control from the stick—superlubricity can be achieved conveniently.
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This research is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Grant Nos. 52175175 and 51527901)
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Xiao MA. He obtained his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2017. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in the State Key Laboratory of Tribology at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His research focuses on vibration induced superlubricity and active friction control in micro/nanoscale.
Xinfeng TAN. He obtained his B.E. degree from Beihang University, China, in 2015, and received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering in 2020 from Tsinghua University, China. He is working at State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University for postdoctoral research. His research interests include the dynamic friction energy dissipation detection at micro-nano scale as well as the design and improvement of micro-nano tribometer based on atomic force microscope.
Dan GUO. She received her M.S. degree in engineering mechanics in 1995 from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, and her Ph.D. degree in engineering mechanics in 1999 from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. She joined the State Key Laboratory of Tribology at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, from 1999. Her current position is a professor and the deputy director of the laboratory. Her research areas cover the properties of friction at the micro/nanoscale, mechanism of interaction among nanoparticles and surface in ultra-smooth surface planarization, and the formation and failure of lubricant film in harsh conditions.
Shizhu WEN. He received his B.E. degree in the Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1955. He went to Imperial College London, London, UK, as a visiting scholar between 1979 and 1981. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the honorary director of State Key Laboratory of Tribology at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He had received 19 national or ministerial prizes for his distinguished research achievements, including the second prize in the National Natural Science Awards, the third prize in the National Technology Invention Awards, 2004 award for Teaching & Research of Tsinghua University, and the Science and Technology Achievement Award of the Ho LEUNG and Ho LEE Foundation in 2002. His research interests are elastohydrodynamic lubrication, thin-film lubrication, the mechanism of friction control and wear, nanotribology, and micro-machine design.
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Ma, X., Tan, X., Guo, D. et al. Active control of friction realized by vibrational excitation: Numerical simulation based on the Prandtl-Tomlinson model and molecular dynamics. Friction 11, 1225–1238 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0651-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0651-4