Experimental investigation of the time-dependent dry frictional behaviour of glass and aluminium

Abstract The bolted connection is probably the most common technique used for the assembling of glass beams or plates. In such connections, the transmission of shear stress is ensured by friction. The present experimental work aims at precisely characterizing the dry friction between a soft 1050 aluminium pad and a glass plate. A tribometer is specially designed and constructed to this end. The experimental results show that the glass–aluminium frictional behaviour is time-dependent. In particular, the friction coefficient turns out to increase with the duration of a constant normal pressure. This increase can reach 65% after 1 h. A state-dependent model involving one scalar internal variable is proposed to formulate the time dependence of the relevant friction coefficient.