2016/10/30 by Iquebal, Ashif S., Sagapuram, Dinakar, Bukkapatnam, Satish
#FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1610.09719
We report electron microscopy observations of the surface plastic flow in polishing of rough metal surfaces with a controlled spherical asperity structure. We show that asperity--abrasive sliding contacts exhibit viscous behavior, where the material flows in the form of thin fluid-like layers. Subsequent bridging of these layers among neighboring asperities result in progressive surface smoothening. Our study provides new phenomenological insights into the long-debated mechanism of polishing. The observations are of broad relevance in tribology and materials processing.