Static and dynamic friction at the ice-steel interface: influence of wettability and grain size

This master thesis project focuses on the study of ice-steel sliding interface. The effect on the friction coefficient of the surface morphology of steel was investigated. Controlled patterns were obtained via a laser texturization process on the steel surface. These superficial modifications induced alterations of some crucial tribological parameters, namely roughness and wettability. The effect of the structural properties of ice was also considered. The study analysed, in particular, the effect of grain size. Two different methods were adopted in order to obtain ice samples with different size of the grains.