Friction Between a Hard Cylinder and a Soft Elastomer in Adhesive Contact: An Experiment

The friction between a steel cylinder and a soft elastomer in adhesive contact is experimentally investigated as the normal force is gradually increased. The dependencies of normal and tangential forces, contact area, as well as average pressure and tangential stresses on the indentation depth, are analyzed. It is shown that the coefficient of friction decreases with increasing normal force according to a power law.