Modeling frictional dynamics of a visco-elastic pillar rubbed on a smooth surface

This study proposes an approximate analytical model on frictional dynamics of a single visco-elastic pillar used for texturing soft surfaces. The frictional dynamics and contact interaction of the pillar with the smooth flat counter surface is modeled with lumped parameters in order to estimate the friction force and the normal load. The effect of aspect ratio of the pillar, preload and sliding velocity are obtained numerically and the analytical model is validated experimentally. The relative error of the proposed model on the calculation of friction force is around 5% while preload applied is in the neighborhood of Euler buckling limit for aspect ratio of 4, and increases to 30% at lower preload values for aspect ratio of 2.