We show experimentally that the sliding friction on sand is greatly reduced by the addition of some-but not too much-water. The formation of capillary water bridges increases the shear modulus of the sand, which facilitates the sliding. Too much water, on the other hand, makes the capillary bridges coalesce, resulting in a decrease of the modulus; in this case, we observe that the friction coef...

We present an active approach for discriminating different materials by impulsively contacting (hitting) them, and sensing and interpreting the resulting sounds. In theory, the angle of internal friction is diagnostic of material, but invariant over object shape. In our experiments, we observe that the angle of internal friction is not invariant over the frequency of the sound spectrum for whic...

The aim of this study was to examine the mechanical characteristics of a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA-H) as a candidate material for artificial joint cartilage. In the study, PVA-H was filled with α-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP) in order to improve its mechanical properties. In addition, laminated composite materials with 3 layers were prepared by laminating α-TCP–filled PVA-H and unfilled PV...

A new die design has been proposed for processing of materials using Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE). The proposed design is an improvement over the existing ones and has an additional attribute to process materials at high temperatures (up to 500 oC). The design has been tested for different materials at different temperatures and it has shown the benefit of reducing the load requiremen...

The first detailed quantitative observations of the two-dimensional collapse of a granular column along a horizontal channel are presented for a variety of materials. Together with the complementary study for the axisymmetric situation, we conclude that for granular collapses the generally accepted approaches, that are highly dependent on frictional parameters, do not describe the main flow phe...

Design of attachment devices in insects varies enormously in relation to different functional loads. Many systems, located on different parts of the body, involve surfaces with particular frictional properties. Such systems evolved to attach parts of the body to each other, or to attach an insect to the substratum by providing fast and reversible attachment/detachment. Among these systems, ther...

In the metal cutting process, the friction and wear behavior between the cutting tool and machined surface is the most important factor that affects the surface quality and the service life of the cutter. The irregular pore structure of porous titanium alloy has changed its mechanical properties and the processing technology. The friction and wear mechanism of the cutting tool and the machined ...

Two structurally interesting 3,6-dinitropyrazolo[4,3-c]pyrazole-based energetic cocrystals were prepared and confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. As novel energetic materials, these two unusual neutral acid-base complexes possess high nitrogen content, good detonation properties, and improved impact and friction sensitivities which highlight their potential energetic applications.

Friction and wear are part and parcel of all walks of life, and for interfaces that are in close or near contact, tribology and mechanics are supremely important. They can critically influence the efficient functioning of devices and components. Nanoscale friction force follows a complex nonlinear dependence on multiple, often interdependent, interfacial and material properties. Various studies...

We calculate the friction force acting on a hard cylinder or spherical ball rolling on a flat surface of a viscoelastic solid. The rolling-friction coefficient depends non-linearly on the normal load and the rolling velocity. For a cylinder rolling on a viscoelastic solid characterized by a single relaxation time Hunter has obtained an exact result for the rolling friction, and our result is in...