Friction of rough surfaces on ice: Experiments and modeling

Abstract

Over a century of scientific research on the sliding friction of ice has not been enough to develop an exhaustive explanation for the tribological behavior of frozen water. It has been recognized that ice shows different friction regimes, but a detailed description of all the different phenomena and processes occurring at the interface, including the effect of surface roughness of both the ice and the antagonist material is still missing. In this work the effect of surface morphology on the friction of steel/ice interfaces is studied. Different degrees of random roughness on steel surfaces are introduced and the friction coefficient is measured over a wide range of temperature and sliding velocity. Correlation between the surface roughness and the lubrication regime and friction coefficient is discussed. A theoretical model is developed in order to explain this correlation, and to control the tribological behavior of the system by a proper selection of surface roughness parameters.

The Influence of Ice Texture on Sliding Over Ice

“…Using this method, Baurle et al [1] measured 2D ice roughness and observed a 4-fold difference in the average roughness Pa (arithmetical mean height for primary profile) between undisturbed ice (0.07µm) and ice on the ice track (0.3µm). A similar approach with ice replicas by Spagni et al [2] reported an average roughness parameter Ra (arithmetical mean height for roughness profile) of 0.1µm ±0.01.…”

“…The experiments have shown the effect of contact area on sliding speed and emphasised the importance of ice texture. Since the ice contact area is important, further work will evaluate the best method for assessing the contact area, by comparing this method with the use of a replica [4], [2].…”

The Influence of Isotropic Surface Roughness of Steel Sliders on Ice Friction Under Different Testing Conditions

“…The rest of the samples additionally had their test surfaces treated by sandblasting which was followed by additional polishing using three different re-polishing times (30, 150 and 240 s) to obtain three different isotropic surface roughness values. Additional polishing ensured that the sharp asperity For different ice friction regimes, different influences of surface roughness have already been reported for polymer [4] or steel [5][6][7][8][9]. Under dry/mixed friction conditions, friction typically increased with increasing roughness of the slider or ice due to increased deformative friction [4][5][6][7].…”

“…Additional polishing ensured that the sharp asperity For different ice friction regimes, different influences of surface roughness have already been reported for polymer [4] or steel [5][6][7][8][9]. Under dry/mixed friction conditions, friction typically increased with increasing roughness of the slider or ice due to increased deformative friction [4][5][6][7]. On the other hand, friction under hydrodynamic friction conditions typically decreased with increasing roughness of the slider [6,8], which was ascribed to the suppression of capillary bridges.…”

High-Speed Measurements of Steel–Ice Friction: Experiment vs. Calculation

“…Normal force was varied by Ovaska and Tuononen in the contact between a skate blade and an ice track resulting in friction values decreasing from 0.014 to 0.006 with increasing load [9]. The influence of roughness on steel-ice friction was investigated by Spagni et al, showing that the resulting coefficient of friction is dependent on the friction regime and can have values between 0.08 and 0.02 in a broad temperature range [10]. Because of the relation of our study to the sport of bobsleighing, we confine the review to experiments at high sliding velocities in the next paragraph.…”