Contact melting during sliding on ice

Abstract This paper describes the water film that is formed as ice melts under a two-dimensional solid slider. The analysis is based on the contact melting theory, and accounts for the coupling between the heat transfer across the water film and the fluid mechanics of the film. The competition between pressure melting and frictional melting in the creation of the film, and the effect of slider thermal boundary conditions (isothermal vs adiabatic) are documented. The dimensionless groups that govern the film behavior are identified. The film thickness increases in the downstream direction. The water leaves the relative-motion area through the front opening and through the trailing opening. The slenderness ratio (thickness/length) of the water film depends on water properties and contact length, and is fairly insensitive to changes in the applied normal force. It is shown that if the presence of ice asperities is taken into account, the contact melting theory may anticipate the trend and order of magnitude of the coefficient of friction determined experimentally.