Plowing Friction in Dry and Lubricated Metal Sliding

Experimental evidence for plowing under dry and lubricated sliding conditions is presented and analytical expressions for the coefficient of friction due to plowing are obtained. The theoretical friction coefficient was found to be a function of the sharpness of the hard asperities, the interfacial “friction” conditions and the shape of the plastic zone. The agreement between theoretical and experimental friction coefficients from lubricated sliding and cutting experiments was remarkably good. The discrepancy between theory and experiment in the case of dry sliding between like metals was shown to be due to plastic deformation of the asperities. Consequently, a different model for plowing was proposed for the case of dry sliding between like metals which produced estimates for the coefficient of friction in fair agreement with the experimental results.