Modulations of the friction force in dry solid friction are usually attributed to macroscopic stick-slip instabilities. Here we show that a distinct, quasistatic mechanism can also lead to nearly periodic force oscillations during sliding contact between an elastomer patterned with parallel grooves, and abraded glass slides. The dominant oscillation frequency is set by the ratio between the sliding velocity and the grooves period. A model is derived which quantitatively captures the dependence of the force modulations amplitude with the normal load, the grooves period, and the slides roughness characteristics. The model's main ingredient is the nonlinearity of the friction law. Since such nonlinearity is ubiquitous for soft solids, this "fingerprint effect" should be relevant to a large class of frictional configurations and have important consequences in human digital touch.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.164301 | DOI Listing |
Soft Matter
January 2025
Center of Excellence in Energy Conversion (CEEC), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Recent progress in digital microfluidics has revealed the distinct advantages of liquid marbles, such as minimal surface friction, reduced evaporation rates, and non-wettability compared to uncoated droplets. This study provides a comprehensive examination of an innovative technique for the precise, contamination-free manipulation of non-magnetic water liquid marbles (WLMs) carried by a ferrofluid liquid marble (FLM) under the control of direct current (DC) and pulse-width modulation (PWM) magnetic fields. The concept relies on the phenomenon in which an FLM and WLMs form a shared meniscus when placed together on a water surface, causing the WLMs to closely track the magnetically actuated FLM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Biol
January 2025
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Despite the myriad studies examining the diversity and mechanisms of gecko adhesion in the lab, we have a poor understanding of how this translates to locomotion in nature. It has long been assumed that greater adhesive strength should translate to superior performance in nature. Using 13 individuals of Bradfield's Namib day gecko (Rhoptropus bradfieldi) in Namibia, I tested the hypothesis that maximum running performance in nature (speed and acceleration) is driven by maximum frictional adhesive strength.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Nanofriction plays an important role in the performance and lifetime of n-type or p-type TMD-based semiconductor nanodevices. However, the mechanism of nanofriction in n-type and p-type TMD semiconductors under an electric field is still blurry. In this paper, monolayers of n-MoSe and p-WSe materials were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and their nanofriction behavior under positive electric field was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA.
The warm Western Boundary Currents (WBCs) and their zonal extensions are persistent, deep, strong and narrow oceanic currents. They are known to anchor and energize the Extra-Tropical storm tracks by frontal thermal air-sea interactions. However, even in the latest generation of climate models, WBCs are characterized by large biases, and both the present storm-track activity and its recent intensification are poorly estimated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Physiol
January 2025
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
A task as simple as holding a cup between your fingers generates complex motor commands to finely regulate the forces applied by muscles. These fine force adjustments ensure the stability and integrity of the object by preventing it from slipping out of grip during manipulation and by reacting to perturbations. To do so, our sensorimotor system constantly monitors tactile and proprioceptive information about the force object exerts on fingertips and the friction of the surfaces to determine the optimal grip force.
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