The goal of this study is to develop a fundamental understanding of the nature of friction and to use this knowledge to generate surfaces of minimum friction under unlubricated conditions. Friction forces are due to a number of phenomena which occur when two surfaces move relative to one another, including adhesion, repeated plastic and elastic deformation of the surface layers, mechanical resistance due to trapped wear particles, etc. In this study the contribution of adhesion alone will be determined for materials with various types of interatomic bonds. Care will be taken to eliminate other potential contributing phenomena. The measured friction force will then be the minimum obtainable for a given material combination. By correlating the measured force data with the nature of the surfaces bonds and with surface deformation of the materials it should be possible to develop selection criteria for materials and design criteria for surface roughness for minimum friction systems.
