Molecular dynamics simulation of lubricated contact between textured surfaces

In this contribution, the friction at atomical scale has been investigated by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This work surves as a preliminary study on the influence of surface texture on the friction at atomic scale, where simple rectangular grooves are added to the contact surface. Our results suggest definite dependence of the friction on the orientation of the grooves, which decreases as the velocity increases. For a given velocity, an optimal direction of sliding which gives the minimum averaged friction coefficient can be identified. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)