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Friction

Let it slip

Nature Physics volume 10, pages 410–411 (2014)Cite this article

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Friction involves a complex set of phenomena spanning a large range of length scales, but experiments assessing the evolution of the slip-front between two dry sliding bodies now reveal that slip can be reasonably well described by linear fracture mechanics theory.

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Figure 1: San Andreas Fault, California, USA.

© PHIL DEGGINGER/ALAMY

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert W. Carpick is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6315, USA,

    Robert W. Carpick

  2. Roland Bennewitz is at the INM Leibniz Institute for New Materials and in the Department of Physics, Saarland University, Campus D2 2, D-66123 Saarbrücken, Germany,

    Roland Bennewitz

Authors
  1. Robert W. Carpick
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  2. Roland Bennewitz
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Correspondence to Robert W. Carpick or Roland Bennewitz.

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Carpick, R., Bennewitz, R. Let it slip. Nature Phys 10, 410–411 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2985

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