The influence of roughness on friction: Part II. The influence of multiple steps

Aim of the present work is to derive a correlation between roughness and friction force. This part II of a paper series tests the elastic deformation model presented in part I on more general tribosystems. Where in part I the influence of a single artificially generated step on friction force was investigated, part II considers the influence of two and more structures inside the contact area on friction force. This artificial roughness was created by lithography on silicon wafers, as regular grooves and ridges. The distances between the steps of the grooves ranged from 100 to 0.1 μm. Finally, the correlation between roughness and friction force was validated on surfaces with statistical roughness created by various grinding processes.