scholarly journals Bioinspired Granular Media Friction Pad: A Universal System for Friction Enhancement on Variety of Substrates

Biomimetics ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Halvor T. Tramsen ◽  
Lars Heepe ◽  
Stanislav N. Gorb

The granular media friction pad (GMFP) inspired by the biological smooth attachment pads of cockroaches and grasshoppers employs passive jamming, to create high friction forces on a large variety of substrates. The granular medium inside the pad is encased by a flexible membrane which at contact formation greatly adapts to the substrate profile. Upon applying load, the granular medium undergoes the jamming transition and changes from fluid-like to solid-like properties. The jammed granular medium, in combination with the deformation of the encasing elastic membrane, results in high friction forces on a multitude of substrate topographies. Here we explore the effect of elasticity variation on the generation of friction by varying granular media filling quantity as well as membrane modulus and thickness. We systematically investigate contact area and robustness against substrate contamination, and we also determine friction coefficients for various loading forces and substrates. Depending on the substrate topography and loading forces, a low filling quantity and a thin, elastic membrane can be favorable, in order to generate the highest friction forces.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 11287
Author(s):  
Halvor T. Tramsen ◽  
Lars Heepe ◽  
Stanislav N. Gorb

For maximizing friction forces of the robotic legs on an unknown/unpredictable substrate, we introduced the granular media friction pad, consisting of a thin elastic membrane encasing loosely filled granular material. On coming into contact with a substrate, the fluid-like granular material flows around the substrate asperities and achieves large contact areas with the substrate. Upon applying load, the granular material undergoes the jamming transition, rigidifies and becomes solid-like. High friction forces are generated by mechanical interlocking on rough substrates, internal friction of the granular media and by the enhanced contact area caused by the deformation of the membrane. This system can adapt to a large variety of dry substrate topologies. To further increase its performance on moist or wet substrates, we adapted the granular media friction pad by structuring the outside of the membrane with a 3D hexagonal pattern. This results in a significant increase in friction under lubricated conditions, thus greatly increasing the universal applicability of the granular media friction pad for a multitude of environments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. eabd2711
Author(s):  
Jean-François Louf ◽  
Nancy B. Lu ◽  
Margaret G. O’Connell ◽  
H. Jeremy Cho ◽  
Sujit S. Datta

Hydrogels hold promise in agriculture as reservoirs of water in dry soil, potentially alleviating the burden of irrigation. However, confinement in soil can markedly reduce the ability of hydrogels to absorb water and swell, limiting their widespread adoption. Unfortunately, the underlying reason remains unknown. By directly visualizing the swelling of hydrogels confined in three-dimensional granular media, we demonstrate that the extent of hydrogel swelling is determined by the competition between the force exerted by the hydrogel due to osmotic swelling and the confining force transmitted by the surrounding grains. Furthermore, the medium can itself be restructured by hydrogel swelling, as set by the balance between the osmotic swelling force, the confining force, and intergrain friction. Together, our results provide quantitative principles to predict how hydrogels behave in confinement, potentially improving their use in agriculture as well as informing other applications such as oil recovery, construction, mechanobiology, and filtration.


1993 ◽  
Vol 07 (09n10) ◽  
pp. 1779-1788 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON A.C. GALLAS ◽  
HANS J. HERRMANN ◽  
STEFAN SOKOLOWSKI

When sand or other granular materials are shaken, poured or sheared many intriguing phenomena can be observed. We will model the granular medium by a packing of elastic spheres and simulate it via Molecular Dynamics. Dissipation of energy and shear friction at collisions are included. The onset of fluidization can be determined and is in good agreement with experiments. On a vibrating plate we observe the formation of convection cells due to walls or amplitude modulations. Density and velocity profiles on conveyor belts are measured and the influence of an obstacle discussed. We mention various types of rheology for flow down an inclined chute or through a pipe and outflowing containers.


2000 ◽  
Vol 627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Fraysse ◽  
Luc Petit

ABSTRACTExperiments were performed under accurately-controlled humidity conditions in order to quantify effects induced by humidity on granular materials. Measurements of the maximal stability angle of a pile made of small glass beads are reported as a function of the relative vapor pressure in the cell, up to close to saturation. The comparison of the results obtained with fluids differing in their molecular interactions with glass, namely water and heptane, shows that the wetting properties of the interstitial liquid on the grains have a strong influence on the cohesion of the non-saturated granular medium. This suggests that gravimetric experiments which could indirectly give information on the size of the capillary bridges that form between grains should be useful to understand the close connection that exists, through interparticle forces, between microscopic properties such as wetting properties and surface roughness of the grains, and global-scale properties of the pile, as its stability and flowability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 11004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei P. Khomenko ◽  
Sergey K. Kargapoltsev ◽  
Andrey V. Eliseev

The article deals with the development of mathematical models and evaluation criteria of the vibration field in the dynamic interactions of the elements of the vibrational technological machines for the processes of vibrational strengthening of long-length parts with help of a steel balls working medium. The study forms a theoretical understanding of the modes of motions of material particles in interaction with a vibrating surface of the working body of the vibration machine. The generalized approach to the assessment of the dynamic quality of the work of vibrating machines in multiple modes of tossing, when the period of free flight of particles is a multiple of the period of the surface oscillations of the working body, is developed in the article. For the correction of vibration field of the working body, the characteristics of dynamic interactions of granular elements of the medium are taken into account using original sensors. The sensors that can detect different particularities of interaction of the granular medium elements at different points of the working body are proposed to evaluate the deviation from a homogeneous and one-dimensional mode of vibration field. Specially developed sensors are able to register interactions between a single granule, a system of granules in filamentous structures, and multipoint interactions of the elements in a close-spaced cylindrical structure. The system of regularization of the structure of vibration fields based on the introduction of motion translation devices is proposed using the multi-point sensor locations on the working body. The article refers to analytical approaches of the theory of vibration displacements. For the experimental data assessment, the methods of statistical analysis are applied. It is shown that the peculiar features of the motion of granular medium registered by the sensors can be used to build active control systems of field vibration.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1083 ◽  
pp. 75-79
Author(s):  
Alexander Sandulyak ◽  
Anna Sandulyak ◽  
Vera Ershova ◽  
Petr Shkatov

We analyze previously not studied issue on the value, nature and manifestation f a demagnetizing factor of effective channels-magnets formed in magnetized granular media by the chains of contacting granules. We provide the factor values for conditionally defined quasi-solid cores of the channels varying in length and diameter, as well as a corresponding consolidating expression which turned out to be exponential with such an argument as the radical of the core relative size. We emphasize full agreement of this expression with the one for a granular medium, i.e. the medium consisting, basically, of the effective channels bundle according to the developed theory of channel-by-channel (selective) magnetization of granular ferro-magnetic media used, e.g. as operating elements in versatile magnetic separators.


1998 ◽  
Vol 543 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Restagno ◽  
H. Gayvallet ◽  
L. Bocquet ◽  
E. Charlaix

AbstractWe present a study of humidity effects on the maximum stability angle in granular media. We show that a granular medium of small glass beads exhibits aging properties: the first avalanche angle increases logarithmically with the resting time of the pile. This aging behavior is found to depend on the relative humidity of the surrounding atmosphere. A short interpretation of this effect, based on a model of activated capillary condensation, is proposed.


Author(s):  
D. Botto ◽  
M. Lavella ◽  
M. M. Gola

The modelling of the friction interfaces has received much attention in recent years from the aerospace industry. In order to obtain reliable prediction of the nonlinear dynamic behaviour of the disc and blades in the aerospace engine the friction forces at interfaces, such as in under-platform dampers, blade and fir tree roots or shrouds, must be modelled accurately. Two contact parameters, namely the contact stiffness and the coefficient of friction, are sufficient to model, with good accuracy, the friction contact. The contact parameters are obtained experimentally, and are of interest for the designer only if representative of the operational environment of the engine. To pursue this aim a test rig has been designed to perform experiments in a wide range of temperatures, with different combinations of normal and tangential load, frequencies and mating materials, representative of the real operating condition of the engine. Most of the rigs found in literature perform most likely point contact even if the two bodies have plane mating surfaces. The design of a real plane-on-plane contact test rig is not an easy task but despite the difficulty a solution was found in the design shown in this work. The core of the rig is a tilting mechanism enabling one surface to lies down on the other so that the plane-on-plane contact is achieved, at least within the flatness geometrical tolerance of the surfaces. The results of the experiments are the hysteresis loops, namely the tangential contact force against the relative displacement, from which the contact parameters can be calculated. Measurements of displacements are taken very close to the actual contact area and are performed by means of two laser interferometers. Localized heating is achieved by means of an induction heating machine while a thermocouple measures the temperature at points close to the contact area.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eloïse Bretagne ◽  
Fabian B. Wadsworth ◽  
Katherine J. Dobson ◽  
Jérémie Vasseur ◽  
Jason P. Coumans

<p>The extraction of melt from a mush in a magma reservoir is of wide interest. All models for melt extraction from a mush require knowledge of mush permeability, and yet this remains poorly constrained. This permeability is typically calculated using the Kozeny-Carman model or variants thereof, which require a priori knowledge of the microstructural geometry. Such models are not calibrated or tested for packs of crystals of a range of shapes found in natural mush piles, leading to the potential for oversimplification of complex natural systems.</p><p>Essentially, a magma mush with minimal crystal-crystal intergrowth is composed of packed crystals where the pore space is filled with interstitial melt. Therefore, this can be studied as a granular medium. We use numerical methods to create domains of closely packed, randomly oriented cuboids in which we keep the short and intermediate axes lengths equal (i.e. square cross section) and vary the long axis magnitude. Our synthetic ‘crystals’ therefore cover the range from oblate to prolate, passing through a cubic shape. We supplement these with 3D numerical packs of spherical particles in cubic lattice arrangements or random arrangements. For the sphere packs we use various polydispersivity of sphere sizes. The permeability of all of these pack types is calculated using a numerical simulation (both LBflow and Avizo-based algorithms) with imposed periodic boundary conditions. The preliminary results suggest that the permeability of a granular medium scales with the specific surface area exclusively, without requiring prior knowledge of the geometry and size distribution of the particles.</p><p>We suggest that the model toward which we are working will allow magma mush permeability to be modelled more accurately. If our approach is embedded in existing continuum models for mush compaction and melt extraction, then more accurate estimates of melt accumulation rates prior to very large eruptions could be found.</p><p>Keywords: melt segregation, compaction, granular media, fluid flow, numerical simulation</p>


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