Phenomenological description of structural changes of the surface layers in a metalpolymer friction pair

Abstract

The synergetic approach is suggested to use to describe physical and chemical processes convoying frictional interaction in a metal-polymer friction pair. The kinetic theory of the first-order phase transformations, based on the fluctuation depiction of the phase nucleation and the subsequent growth of its emissions, was applied to build a mathematical model of structural changes occurring in the surface layer. The model is brought to the system of Lorentz equations, where the temperature plays the role of the controlling parameter responsible for the process of the system structural rearrangement, the order parameter ε represents the shear strain component, and the conjugate field σ is the corresponding component of the elastic stress tensor. The representation of the thermodynamic potential in the form of expansion into a series of a variable h (the distribution density of the crystalline phase) is employed to make a qualitative analysis of the phase transition. The use of the expansion for the thermodynamic potential allows the nucleation of dispersed particles of the «new» phase in the old one.