A New Insight in Low Friction Characterization-Application to DLC Coatings.

Nowadays, controlling friction is a major issue for energy reduction, especially in the area of transportation. Thus, a novel apparatus, oscillating tribometer, has been developed to measure friction between two sliding surfaces and especially very low friction, without measuring the tangential force at the interface. The technique is based on the generation of the oscillating response of a single degree-of-freedom free damped oscillator, from which the friction characteristics are obtained. These characteristics include two combined friction contributions, i.e., a velocity-dependent one, ? and a velocity-independent one, pi. The aim of this work is to study the friction contributions of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings (ta-C and a-C:H) using oleic acid and glycerol as lubricants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]