Measurement of Tangential Contact Hysteresis During Microslip

This paper describes a measurement system designed to determine the hysteresis that develops between two surfaces as a result of small-amplitude tangential relative motion. Hysteresis is determined by measuring the tangential force and relative displacement of the contacting surfaces as they oscillate. These measurements also produce values of contact parameters such as friction coefficient and tangential contact stiffness. Although these parameters depend on the tribological properties, most of them also exhibit strong sensitivity to measurement errors. The measurement system described here avoids or at least reduces many of the measurement artifacts. This paper validates the measurement system by analyzing and estimating potential errors and describes corrections to systematic errors where possible.