Adhesion, Friction and Lubrication of Viscoelastic Materials

Dear Colleagues,

The mechanical behavior of viscoelastic materials affects many physical phenomena occurring at the interface between surfaces of interest in daily life and in industrial applications. Understanding how the interface between a polymer and another fails, or the way a rubber material is able to give some friction force when it comes into sliding contact with a rough surface, and how these phenomena are affected by the interposition of lubricants of any nature, are all topics of great importance in terms of practical applications. In all these cases, dealing with viscoelastic solids intrinsically has a high degree of complexity due to the time-dependent stress–strain relations governing their responses.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to foster the growth of new ideas in the field by discussing the most recent advances in adhesion, friction and lubrication of viscoelastic materials.

We invite authors to submit original research and review articles, which stimulate the continuing efforts to understand and improve knowledge in these fields.

We are particularly interested in theoretical and experimental contributions focusing on fundamental physics, experimental investigations and validations of theories and models of viscoelastic solids on multiple length scales from macro to nano work, including also biomechanical applications and bio-inspired solutions, as well as bio- systems. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• adhesion and adhesion failures of viscoelastic materials
• contact, lubrication and friction of viscoelastic materials with an emphasis on the contact between rough or structured surfaces
• advanced numerical techniques to study contact, friction and lubrication of randomly rough viscoelastic interfaces

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Carbone
Prof. Dr. Francesco Bottiglione
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Lubricants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.