How does humidity influence friction between solid surfaces? One important mechanism is capillary adhesion, where tiny liquid bridges form between contacting surfaces and influence how strongly they stick together.
While this phenomenon is relatively well understood for individual contact points, its behaviour at multi-asperity interfaces — where many microscopic surface features interact — remains challenging to predict. Our research investigates how these microscopic interactions influence friction at larger scales.
What are we investigating?
01 From microscopic to macroscopic contacts
Understanding how capillary adhesion scales from individual surface contacts to interfaces containing many microscopic contact points.
02 Friction in humid environments
Performing silicon-on-silicon friction experiments to investigate how humidity and capillary forces influence sliding behaviour.
03 Connecting surface structure to friction
Combining atomic force microscopy (AFM) surface measurements with contact calculations to reveal the relationship between surface topography, adhesion and friction.
By combining experiments and computational modelling, we aim to uncover how microscopic adhesion mechanisms govern friction across complex solid interfaces.
Explore the research
Interested in the underlying science? Explore our related publications below.
PHYSICAL REVIEW APPLIED · 2022 Contribution of Capillary Adhesion to Friction at Macroscopic Solid–Solid Interfaces Feng-Chun Hsia, Chao-Chun Hsu, Liang Peng, Fiona M. Elam, Chen Xiao, Steve Franklin, Daniel Bonn & Bart Weber Read publication ↗ PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS · 2022 Nonmonotonic Friction due to Water Capillary Adhesion and Hydrogen Bonding at Multiasperity Interfaces Liang Peng, Feng-Chun Hsia, Sander Woutersen, Mischa Bonn, Bart Weber & Daniel Bonn Read publication ↗ PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS · 2025 Decrease of Static Friction Coefficient with Interface Growth from Single to Multiasperity Contact Liang Peng, Thibault Roch, Daniel Bonn & Bart Weber Read publication ↗
Research contact: Liang Peng · L.Peng@uva.nl
