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Self-Amplification of Solid Friction in Interleaved Assemblies

Héctor Alarcón, Thomas Salez, Christophe Poulard, Jean-Francis Bloch, Élie Raphaël, Kari Dalnoki-Veress, and Frédéric Restagno
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 015502 – Published 7 January 2016
Physics logo See Synopsis: The Strength of Interleaved Phonebooks Explained
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Abstract

It is nearly impossible to separate two interleaved phone books when held by their spines. A full understanding of this astonishing demonstration of solid friction in complex assemblies remains elusive. In this Letter, we report on experiments with controlled booklets and show that the force required increases sharply with the number of sheets. A model captures the effect of the number of sheets, their thickness, and the overlapping distance. Furthermore, the data collapse onto a self-similar master curve with one dimensionless amplification parameter. In addition to solving a long-standing familiar enigma, this model system provides a framework with which one can accurately measure friction forces and coefficients at low loads, and that has relevance to complex assemblies from the macro- to the nanoscale.

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  • Received 29 September 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.015502

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
General Physics

Synopsis

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The Strength of Interleaved Phonebooks Explained

Published 7 January 2016

A simple model borne out by experiments explains why it's so hard to separate a pair of phonebooks whose pages have been interleaved.  

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Authors & Affiliations

Héctor Alarcón1,2, Thomas Salez2, Christophe Poulard1, Jean-Francis Bloch3, Élie Raphaël2, Kari Dalnoki-Veress2,4, and Frédéric Restagno1,*

  • 1Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS & Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
  • 2Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS 7083 Gulliver, ESPCI ParisTech, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France
  • 3Université de Grenoble Alpes, LGP2, CS 10065, 38402 Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada

  • *frederic.restagno@u-psud.fr

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Issue

Vol. 116, Iss. 1 — 8 January 2016

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