%0 Journal Article
%A Baran, Lukasz
%A González Mac-Dowell, Luis
%T Confinement enhanced viscosity vs shear thinning in lubricated ice friction
%D 2024
%@ 0021-9606
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/102554
%X The ice surface is known for presenting a very small kinetic friction coefficient, but the origin of this property remains highly controversial todate. In this work, we revisit recent computer simulations of ice sliding on atomically smooth substrates, using newly calculated bulk viscositiesfor the TIP4P/ice water model. The results show that spontaneously formed premelting films in static conditions exhibit an effective viscositythat is about twice the bulk viscosity. However, upon approaching sliding speeds in the order of m/s, the shear rate becomes very large, andthe viscosities decrease by several orders of magnitude. This shows that premelting films can act as an efficient lubrication layer despite theirsmall thickness and illustrates an interesting interplay between confinement enhanced viscosities and shear thinning. Our results suggest thatthe strongly thinned viscosities that operate under the high speed skating regime could largely reduce the amount of frictional heating.
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