The Sliding and Rolling of a Cylinder at the Nano-Scale

The behavior of a nano-scale cylindrical body (e.g. a fiber), lying on a substrate and acted upon by a combination of normal and tangential forces, is the subject of this investigation. As the scale decreases to the nano level, adhesion becomes an important issue in this contact problem. Thus this investigation treats the two-dimensional plane strain elastic deformation of both the cylinder and the substrate during a rolling/sliding motion, including the effect of adhesion using the Maugis model. For the initiation of sliding, the Mindlin approach is used, whereas for rolling, the Carter approach is utilized. Each case is modified for nano-scale effects by including the effect of adhesion on the contact area and by using the adhesion theory of friction for the friction stress. Analytical results are given for the normal and tangential loading problems, including the initiation of sliding and rolling in terms of dimensionless quantities representing adhesion, cylinder size, and applied forces.