Elastic–plastic cube model for ultrasonic friction reduction via Poisson's effect

•We model ultrasonic lubrication inducted via Poisson effect.•An elastic–plastic cube model describes the mechanics of asperities at the interface between sliding bodies.•An experiment is presented that validates the model calculations.

Ultrasonic friction reduction has been studied experimentally and theoretically. This paper presents a new elastic–plastic cube model which can be applied to various ultrasonic lubrication cases. A cube is used to represent all the contacting asperities of two surfaces. Friction force is considered as the product of the tangential contact stiffness and the deformation of the cube. Ultrasonic vibrations are projected onto three orthogonal directions, separately changing contact parameters and deformations. Hence, the overall change of friction forces. Experiments are conducted to examine ultrasonic friction reduction using different materials under normal loads that vary from 40 N to 240 N. Ultrasonic vibrations are generated both in longitudinal and vertical (out-of-plane) directions by way of the Poisson effect. The tests show up to 60% friction reduction; model simulations describe the trends observed experimentally.