The progressive onset of slip at the wall, which corresponds to a slip length increasing with the solicitation time before reaching a plateau, has been investigated for model viscoelastic polymer solutions, allowing one to vary the longest relaxation time while keeping constant solid - fluid interactions. A hydrodynamic model based on a Maxwell fluid and the classical Navier's hypothesis of a linear response for the friction stress at the interface fully accounts for the data, without any adjustable parameter. No viscoelastic response needs be postulated for the friction, reflecting the local character of solid-liquid friction mechanisms.
Ultrathin polymer films on non-wettable substrates display dynamic features which have been attributed to either viscoelastic or slip effects. Here we show that in the weak and strong slip regime effects of viscoelastic relaxation are either absent or not distinguishable from slip effects. Strong-slip modifies the fastest unstable mode in a rupturing thin film, which questions the standard approach to reconstruct the effective interface potential from dewetting experiments.
The transition from static to dynamic friction is often described as a fracture-like instantaneous slip. However, studies on slow sliding processes aimed at understanding frictional instabilities and earthquakes report slow friction transients that are usually explained by empirical rate-and-state formulations. We perform very slow ($\sim nm/s$) macroscopic-scale sliding experiments and show that the onset of frictional slip is governed by continuous non-monotonic dynamics originating from a competition between contact aging and shear-induced rejuvenation. This allows to describe both our non-…
We report on the multi-contact frictional dynamics of model elastomer surfaces rubbed against bare glass slides. The surfaces consist of layers patterned with thousands spherical caps (radius of curvature 100 $μ$m) distributed both spatially and in height, regularly or randomly. Use of spherical asperities yields circular micro-contacts whose radius is a direct measure of the contact pressure distribution. In addition, optical tracking of individual contacts provides the in-plane deformations of the tangentially loaded interface, yielding the shear force distribution. We then investigate the s…
We propose a single chain slip-spring model, which is based on the slip-spring model by Likhtman [A. E. Likhtman, Macromolecules, 38, 6128 (2005)], for fast rheology simulations of entangled polymers on a GPU. We modify the original slip-spring model slightly for efficient calculations on a GPU. Our model is designed to satisfy the detailed balance condition, which enables us to analyze its static or linear response properties easily. We theoretically analyze several statistical properties of the model, such as the linear response, which will be useful to analyze simulation data. We show that …
Polymer gels behave as soft viscoelastic solids and exhibit a generic nonlinear mechanical response characterized by pronounced stiffening prior to irreversible failure, most often through macroscopic fractures. Here, we aim at capturing the latter scenario for a protein gel using a nonlinear integral constitutive equation built upon ($i$) the linear viscoelastic response of the gel, here well described by a power-law relaxation modulus, and ($ii$) the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of the gel, encoded into a "damping function". Such formalism predicts quantitatively the gel mechanical resp…
Macroscopic sliding between two solids is triggered by the propagation of a micro-slip front along the frictional interface. In certain conditions, sliding is preceded by the propagation of aborted fronts, spanning only part of the contact interface. The selection of the characteristic size spanned by those so-called precursors remains poorly understood. Here, we introduce a 1D toy model of precursors between a slider and a track in which the fronts are quasi-static self-healing slip pulses. When the slider's thickness is large compared to the elastic correlation length and when the interfacia…
Measuring yielding in cohesive suspensions is often hampered by slip at measurement surfaces. This paper presents creep data for strongly-flocculated suspensions obtained using vane-in-cup tools with differing cup-to-vane diameter ratios. The three suspensions were titania and alumina aggregated at their isoelectric points and polymer-flocculated alumina. The aim was to find the diameter ratio where slip or premature yielding at the cup wall had no effect on the transient behaviour. The large diameter ratio results showed readily understandable material behaviour comprising linear viscoelastic…
We study the onset of friction for rough contacting blocks whose interface is coated with a thin lubrication layer. High speed measurements of the real contact area and stress fields near the interface reveal that propagating shear cracks mediate lubricated frictional motion. While lubricants reduce interface resistances, surprisingly, they significantly increase energy dissipated, $Γ$, during rupture. Moreover, lubricant viscosity affects the onset of friction but has no effect on $Γ$. Fracture mechanics provide a new way to view the otherwise hidden complex dynamics of the lubrication layer.
The onset of frictional motion is mediated by rupture-like slip fronts, which nucleate locally and propagate eventually along the entire interface causing global sliding. The static friction coefficient is a macroscopic measure of the applied force at this particular instant when the frictional interface loses stability. However, experimental studies are known to present important scatter in the measurement of static friction; the origin of which remains unexplained. Here, we study the nucleation of local slip at interfaces with slip-weakening friction of random strength and analyze the result…
We have developed a new technique to measure viscoelasticity in soft materials such as polymer solutions, by monitoring thermal fluctuations of embedded probe particles using laser interferometry in a microscope. Interferometry allows us to obtain power spectra of fluctuating beads from 0.1 Hz to 20 kHz, and with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. Using linear response theory, we determined the frequency-dependent loss and storage shear moduli up to frequencies on the order of a kHz. Our technique measures local values of the viscoelastic response, without actively straining the system, and is …
When two solids start rubbing together, frictional sliding initiates in the wake of slip fronts propagating along their surfaces in contact. This macroscopic rupture dynamics can be successfully mapped on the elastodynamics of a moving shear crack. However, this analogy breaks down during the nucleation process, which develops at the scale of surface asperities where microcontacts form. Recent atomistic simulations revealed how a characteristic junction size selects if the failure of microcontact junctions either arises by brittle fracture or by ductile yielding. This work aims at bridging the…
In this work, we numerically investigate the dynamics of a self-propelling autophoretic Janus particle in a weakly viscoelastic fluid. The self-propulsion is achieved by an asymmetry in the properties of the surface of the Janus particle that drives a surface slip velocity and bulk flow. Here we investigate the effect of viscoelasticity on this advection-diffusion problem over a range of Péclet and Damköhler numbers. Particles are found to swim faster, or slower, in viscoelastic fluids, and we show how reaction and diffusion rates affect the viscoelastic stresses that lead to changes in propul…
The sliding of a solid object on a solid substrate requires a shear force that is larger than the maximum static friction force. It is commonly believed that the maximum static friction force is proportional to the loading force and does not depend on the apparent contact area. The ratio of the maximum static friction force to the loading force is called the static friction coefficient mM, which is considered to be a constant. Here, we conduct experiments demonstrating that the static friction force of a slider on a substrate follows a novel friction law under certain conditions. The magnitude…
When a disordered solid is sheared, yielding is followed by the onset of intermittent response that is characterized by slip in local regions usually labeled shear-transformation zones (STZ). Such intermittent response resembles the behavior of earthquakes or contact depinning, where a well-defined landscape of pinning disorder prohibits the deformation of an elastic medium. Nevertheless, a disordered solid is evidently different in that pinning barriers of particles are due to neighbors that are also subject to motion. Microscopic yielding leads to destruction of the local microstructure and …
Flow instabilities are widely studied because of their economical and theoretical interest, however few results have been published about the polymer electrification during the extrusion. Nevertheless the generation of the electrical charges is characteristic of the interaction between the polymer melt and the die walls. In our study, the capillary extrusion of a metallocene polyethylene (mPE) through a tungsten carbide die is characterized through accurate electrical measurements thanks a Faraday pail. No significant charges are observed since the extrudate surface remains smooth. However, as…
The onset of frictional instabilities, e.g. earthquakes nucleation, is intimately related to velocity-weakening friction, in which the frictional resistance of interfaces decreases with increasing slip velocity. While this frictional response has been studied extensively, less attention has been given to steady-state velocity-strengthening friction, in spite of its potential importance for various aspects of frictional phenomena such as the propagation speed of interfacial rupture fronts and the amount of stored energy released by them. In this note we suggest that a crossover from steady-stat…
We describe benchmark experiments to evaluate the frictional properties of laser patterned low-density polyethylene as a function of sliding velocity, normal force and humidity. The pattern is a square lattice of square cavities with sub-mm spacing. We find that dynamic friction decreases compared to non-patterned surfaces, since stress concentrations lead to anticipated detachment, and that stick-slip behavior is also affected. Friction increases with humidity, and the onset of stick-slip events occurs in the high humidity regime. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations o…
In many sliding systems consisting of solid object on a solid substrate under dry condition, the friction force does not depend on the apparent contact area and is proportional to the loading force. This behaviour is called Amontons' law and indicates that the friction coefficient, or the ratio of the friction force to the loading force, is constant. Here, however, using numerical and analytical methods, we show that Amontons' law breaks down systematically under certain conditions for an elastic object experiencing a friction force that locally obeys Amontons' law. The macroscopic static fric…
