title: Self-Amplification of Solid Friction in Interleaved Assemblies.
abstract: It is nearly impossible to separate two interleaved phone books when held by their spines. A full understanding of this astonishing demonstration of solid friction in complex assemblies remains elusive. In this Letter, we report on experiments with controlled booklets and show that the force required increases sharply with the number of sheets. A model captures the effect of the number of sheets, their thickness, and the overlapping distance. Furthermore, the data collapse onto a self-similar master curve with one dimensionless amplification parameter. In addition to solving a long-standing familiar enigma, this model system provides a framework with which one can accurately measure friction forces and coefficients at low loads, and that has relevance to complex assemblies from the macro- to the nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS & Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.|Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS 7083 Gulliver, ESPCI ParisTech, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Héctor
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alarcón
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS 7083 Gulliver, ESPCI ParisTech, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Salez
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS & Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poulard
authors.affiliation: Université de Grenoble Alpes, LGP2, CS 10065, 38402 Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Francis
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bloch
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS 7083 Gulliver, ESPCI ParisTech, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Élie
authors.initials: É
authors.lastname: Raphaël
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS 7083 Gulliver, ESPCI ParisTech, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, France.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dalnoki-Veress
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS & Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Restagno