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The Coulomb friction model is frequently used for sheet metal forming simulations. This model incorporates a constant coefficient of friction and does not take the influence of important parameters such as contact pressure or deformation of the sheet material into account. This article presents a more advanced friction model for large-scale forming simulations based on the surface changes on the micro-scale. When two surfaces are in contact, the surface texture of a material changes due to the combination of normal loading and stretching. Consequently, shear stresses between contacting surfaces, caused by the adhesion and ploughing effect between contacting asperities, will change when the surface texture changes. A friction model has been developed which accounts for these microscopic dependencies and its influence on the friction behavior on the macro-scale. The friction model has been validated by means of finite element simulations on the micro-scale and has been implemented in a finite element code to run large scale sheet metal forming simulations. Results showed a realistic distribution of the coefficient of friction depending on the local process conditions.

In this work, a full numerical solution to the cam-roller follower-lubricated contact is provided. The general framework of this model is based on a model describing the kinematics, a finite length line contact isothermal-EHL model for the cam-roller contact and a semi-analytical lubrication model for the roller-pin bearing. These models are interlinked via an improved roller-pin friction model. For the numerical study, a cam-roller follower pair, as part of the fuel injection system in Diesel engines, was analyzed. The results, including the evolution of power losses, minimum film thickness and maximum pressures, are compared with analytical solutions corresponding to infinite line contact models. The main findings of this work are that for accurate prediction of crucial performance indicators such as minimum film thickness, maximum pressure and power losses a finite length line contact analysis is necessary due to non-typical EHL characteristics of the pressure and film thickness distributions. Furthermore, due to the high contact forces associated with cam-roller pairs as part of fuel injection units, rolling friction is the dominant power loss contributor as roller slippage appears to be negligible. Finally, the influence of the different roller axial surface profiles on minimum film thickness, maximum pressure and power loss is shown to be significant. In fact, due to larger contact area, the maximum pressure can be reduced and the minimum film thickness can be increased significantly, however, at the cost of higher power losses.

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Although switchable adhesive surfaces are important and desirable for soft robotics, it is still challenging to replicate nature's switchable adhesion capability on artificial surfaces, especially for underwater applications. Here polymeric coatings with fingerprint topographies that are capable of switching the surface adhesion upon light illumination are reported. This is achieved via a synergistic combination of surface topographical inversion and spatially selective distribution of adhesive polymers. The surface topographical inversion is accomplished by the anisotropic deformation of the fingerprint-configured liquid crystal network (LCN) coating upon light-controlled order parameter modulation. Adhesive and nonadhesive polymers are spatial-selectively arranged on top of the LCN coating following the alternating homeotropic and planar domains, respectively, where liquid crystal mesogens are orthogonally aligned. The adhesive part is composed of a water-tolerant adhesive polymer with 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (catechol) groups inspired by mussel byssus. This report presents a dynamic surface with locally alternating nonadhesive indented areas and adhesive elevated areas where the topographical positions can be dynamically changed with light illumination which can serve as smart skins for robotic applications.

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