Аннотация:Friction is often accompanied by local fracture at the boundary of the contacting bodies. The gapbetween the bodies usually contains moving particles of different origin (third body), a change in the effectivefriction conditions may be associated with some changes in the structure of the third body. This paperpresents a new series of experiments in which the process of rearrangement of intermediate layer particlesinteracting with various elastic materials (glass-rubber and steel) is modeled at different scale levels. A techniquefor visualizing the effect of mutual influence that occurs when two balls are pressed into a layer of rubberis proposed. It is the mutual influence that causes the effect of convergence or separation of the balls orparticles during reciprocating frictional loading. The velocity of these processes depends on humidity and, incase of contact with the rubber layer, on the thickness of the layer. At high humidity, the configuration of theparticles changes faster, and the friction force decreases. Replacing sand with an abrasive leads to an increasein the coefficient of friction and wear with a change in the microrelief of the surface. The minimum roughnessis obtained for a humidity of 30%.
