Friction Laws

Abstract

The tangential tractions discussed in the previous chapter must be associated with some mechanism such as friction, unless the bodies are bonded [welded] together, in which case we are not strictly in the domain of contact mechanics. The investigation of the nature of such frictional tractions is more properly a subject for the related discipline of Tribology, though we shall touch on the subject in Sect. 8.6, and also in Chap. 16 where we investigate the contact of rough surfaces. In most of this book, we shall make use of the simple theory of friction associated with the names of Amontons and Coulomb, according to which the maximum tangential force | Q| that can be transmitted between two bodies at a plane interface is linearly proportional to the compressive normal force P and independent of the area of contact.