Mike Ciavarella's blog
a new book in Contact Mechanics... for beginners!
would you be so kind as to give me some feedback on a draft version of a book which I intend to publish mainly for undergraduate students in Contact Mechanics. I am author together with Prof. Antonio Papangelo and PhD student Riccardo Leonetti. If you are kindly available, please answer and I will send you the PDF.
Preface
a perspective paper on "simple solutions in contact mechanics" for reviewing my 30 years of career so far
dear Friends and Colleagues
I have been invited to write a review, actually a "Perspective" paper on Contact Mechanics from my personal point of view, which obviously reflects my own experience in my nearly 30 years of research activities. This is a sort of "celebration" therefore, and I would like to make it as simple, complete, and elegant and useful as possible.
Any comment therefore on this preprint would be greatly appreciated.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/415644414
optimal temperature and optimal temperature gradient in tyres?
Dear Colleagues
I have been playing with a very good student from Berlin with the idea that a temperature gradient along the depth of the tire could help reduce wear significantly. We all know that there is an optimal range of temperature for friction and wear --- much less known is an optimal "temperature gradient". I hope you find this study a good starting point on this idea. Maybe somebody wants to explore how to patent it!
https://lnkd.in/d5nibSYN
Mike
Can we really predict rubber friction? I suppose not yet!
"Prediction" of friction is an old dream. Even in the field of rubber friction, where we think we understand the various mechanisms of hysteresis and adhesion, we are very far from this achievement.
friction and persson's theory for fractal roughness
dear colleagues
I recommend reading this recent paper
Chadha, V., Randolph, A. B., Reifler, K., Jacobs, T. D., & Beschorner, K. E. (2025). Validation of a Multiscale Hysteresis Mechanics Model in Predicting Oily Shoe-Floor Friction Across Surfaces With Varying Finishes. Journal of Tribology, 147(9).
suggestions to please editors....
Dear Friends
I send you a nice short paper with indications on how to "please" editors. Nothing new for senior people, but maybe useful to give to your young phd students.
regards,
MC
Leonardo's universal friction coefficient is found to be universal after all!
It turns out that friction coefficient 0.25 suggested as universal by Leonardo da Vinci more than 500 years ago has some universaility, as minimum friction coefficient for any granular material: it makes me proud as italian ;)
I guess it would be interesting to show this experimental result also theoretically or numerically, any interest?
A new analytical model for fibrillar viscoelastic adhesion using the Schapery or the Shrimali-Lopez-Pamies nucleation models
Hello: I would be interested in any comment about this preprint on fibrillar viscoelastic adhesion, originally devised by Schargott Popov and Gorb, where we use for the first time not only the Schapery model for nucleation of cracks, but also the Shrimali and Lopez Pamies, which leads to quite stronger enhancement of adhesion (the limit is the square of the Schapery one), and pull-off with no real prior propagation phase. Propagation with Schapery nucleation criterion is found to be qualitatively similar to the Schapery and Persson-Brener propagation theories, except that