EFFECT OF NORMAL LOAD ON FRICTION CHARACTERISTICS OF BIO-INSPIRED ELASTOMERIC SURFACES
Résumé
Friction characteristics of interacting surfaces play an important role in technical and biological systems. Here, we report a systematic investigation of friction mechanics and analysis of the real contact dynamics on different polymeric bioreplicas. Taking advantage of a recently developed micro-moulding method, surface topographies from model plant leaves were precisely replicated onto a highly transparent and soft elastomeric material. A nano-scratch apparatus was home-modified (with in-situ observation) and used to perform unidirectional friction measurements, by forming a sliding contact with a model adhesive probe. Tests were carried out to examine the effect of applied normal load on the friction characteristics and corresponding results were correlated and discussed with surface-specific topographies.