Stick-slip regime of melting of boundary lubrication taking into account spatial inhomogeneity

The processes of boundary friction between two atomically smooth solid surfaces with an ultrathin layer of lubricant between them are studied in the context of the model of the first-order phase transitions, taking into account the spatial inhomogeneity. The stick-slip regime of motion, which is often observed experimentally for such systems, is considered. Such a regime is represented as the periodic first-order phase transitions between the structural states of the lubricant. It is shown that during motion, the lubricant tends to assume a homogeneous structure over the sliding plane, which results in the periodicity of time dependences of the basic parameters in the stick-slip regime. The dependence of the order parameter on the shear rate is analyzed and it is shown that this dependence has the same shape for all the regions on the contact plane.