Effect of Temperature on Fe-Polytetrafluoroethylene Friction Coefficient Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation

D Pan and HB Wang and LX Sun and KF Zhu and XH Hao, TRIBOLOGY TRANSACTIONS, 65, 705-715 (2022).

DOI: 10.1080/10402004.2022.2077871

We established a coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) model of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) at elevated temperatures. The nonbonding and bonding interaction parameters among PTFE beads were estimated. Then a friction model for simulating the Fe-PTFE friction process was developed on the basis of the estimated interaction parameters. The influence of elevated temperature on friction coefficient of Fe-PTFE was investigated. We found that the friction coefficient of Fe-PTFE decreases with an increase in temperature of 300-500 K. This is in a good agreement with experiments. Moreover, we comprehensively analyzed the variations in energies; that is, the bond energy, bond angle energy, and deformations of PTFE molecules. The elevated temperature reduces the interaction forces among PTFE beads, thereby leading to a decrease in friction force. Although the elevated temperature can enhance the bond energy, bond angle energy, and kinetic energy of PTFE molecules, the increase in kinetic energy has an unremarkable influence on the interaction forces between Fe and PTFE layers compared with the effect of the bond energy and bond angle energy on the interaction forces.

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