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Linking microstructural evolution and macro-scale friction behavior in metals

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Abstract

A correlation is established between the macro-scale friction regimes of metals and a transition between two dominant atomistic mechanisms of deformation. Metals tend to exhibit bi-stable friction behavior—low and converging or high and diverging. These general trends in behavior are shown to be largely explained using a simplified model based on grain size evolution, as a function of contact stress and temperature, and are demonstrated for self-mated pure copper and gold sliding contacts. Specifically, the low-friction regime (where µ < 0.5) is linked to the formation of ultra-nanocrystalline surface films (10–20 nm), driving toward shear accommodation by grain boundary sliding. Above a critical combination of stress and temperature—demonstrated to be a material property—shear accommodation transitions to dislocation dominated plasticity and high friction, with µ > 0.5. We utilize a combination of experimental and computational methods to develop and validate the proposed structure–property relationship. This quantitative framework provides a shift from phenomenological to mechanistic and predictive fundamental understanding of friction for crystalline materials, including engineering alloys.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Greg Sawyer (U. Florida) for providing insightful critique of the proposed model and its presentation, Stephen Foiles (SNL) for enlightening discussions on determination of grain boundary and stacking fault energies via simulations and comparison with experimental values, Michael Dugger (SNL) and Somuri Prasad (SNL) for numerous helpful discussions about historical research connecting tribological behavior with microstructure and surface composition, Tim Furnish (SNL) for helpful comments about the stacking fault energy of alloys, Paul Kotula (SNL) for acquisition of STEM images, and Brendan Nation (SNL) for assistance with design of experiments and the acquisition of friction and wear data. The authors also acknowledge helpful discussions with Jorge Argibay about time-dependent multi-variate analysis. This work was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories, a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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    1. Materials Science and Engineering Center, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 87185, USA

      N. Argibay, M. Chandross & J. R. Michael

    2. Department of Physics, Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

      S. Cheng

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    1. N. Argibay
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    Correspondence to M. Chandross.

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    N. Argibay and M. Chandross contributed equally to this work.

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    Argibay, N., Chandross, M., Cheng, S. et al. Linking microstructural evolution and macro-scale friction behavior in metals. J Mater Sci 52, 2780–2799 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0569-1

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