Generating fractal rough surfaces with the spectral representation method

The application of the spectral representation method in generating Gaussian and non-Gaussian fractal rough surfaces is studied in this work. The characteristics of fractal rough surfaces simulated by the spectral representation method and the conventional Fast Fourier transform filtering method are compared. Furthermore, the fractal rough surfaces simulated by these two methods are compared in the simulation of contact and lubrication problems. Next, the influence of low and high cutoff frequencies on the normality of the simulated Gaussian fractal rough surfaces is investigated with roll-off power spectral density and single power-law power spectral density. Finally, a simple approximation method to generate non-Gaussian fractal rough surfaces is proposed by combining the spectral representation method and the Johnson translator system. Based on the simulation results, the current work gives recommendations on using the spectral representation method and the Fast Fourier transform filtering method to generate fractal surfaces and suggestions on selecting the low cutoff frequency of the power-law power spectral density. Furthermore, the results show that the proposed approximation method can be a choice to generate non-Gaussian fractal surfaces when the accuracy requirements are not high. The MATLAB codes for generating Gaussian and non-Gaussian fractal rough surfaces are provided.

Adsorption on Fractal Surfaces: A Non Linear Modeling Approach of a Fractional Behavior

This article deals with the random sequential adsorption (RSA) of 2D disks of the same size on fractal surfaces with a Hausdorff dimension 1<d<2. According to the literature and confirmed by numerical simulations in the paper, the high coverage regime exhibits fractional dynamics, i.e., dynamics in t−1/d where d is the fractal dimension of the surface. The main contribution this paper is that it proposes to capture this behavior with a particular class of nonlinear model: a driftless control affine model.

On the stiffness of surfaces with non-Gaussian height distribution

In this work, the stiffness, i.e., the derivative of the load-separation curve, is studied for self-affine fractal surfaces with non-Gaussian height distribution. In particular, the heights of the surfaces are assumed to follow a Weibull distribution. We find that a linear relation between stiffness and load, well established for Gaussian surfaces, is not obtained in this case. Instead, a power law, which can be motivated by dimensionality analysis, is a better descriptor. Also unlike Gaussian surfaces, we find that the stiffness curve is no longer independent of the Hurst exponent in this case. We carefully asses the possible convergence errors to ensure that our conclusions are not affected by them.

Roughness-Induced Adhesive Hysteresis in Self-Affine Fractal Surfaces

It is known that in the presence of surface roughness, adhesion can lead to distinct paths of loading and unloading for the area–load and penetration–load relationships, thus causing hysteretic loss. Here, we investigate the effects that the surface roughness parameters have on such adhesive hysteresis loss. We focus on the frictionless normal contact between soft elastic bodies and, for this reason, we model adhesion according to Johnson, Kendall, and Roberts (JKR) theory. Hysteretic energy loss is found to increase linearly with the true area of contact, while the detachment force is negligibly influenced by the maximum applied load reached at the end of the loading phase. Moreover, for the micrometric roughness amplitude hrms considered in the present work, adhesion hysteresis is found to be affected by the shorter wavelengths of roughness. Specifically, hysteresis losses decrease with increasing fractal dimension and cut-off frequency of the roughness spectrum. However, we stress that a different behavior could occur in other ranges of roughness amplitude.

Fabrication of PVDF/PES nanofibers with unsmooth fractal surfaces by electrospinning: A general strategy and formation mechanism

Smaller fibers are welcome in many applications due to larger surface area, but there is a threshold for smallest fibers for a fixed spinning system. In order to further improve surface area, hierarchical structure is considered in this paper using electrospinning. A bi-solvent system is used in our experiment for fast solvent evaporation. Unsmooth nanofibers are obtained, and the formation mechanism is elucidated.