Model of the effect of local frictional heating on the tribodesorbed gases from metals in ultra-high vacuum

In this paper, a model of thermal desorption of gases from the friction zone of metals in ultra-high vacuum is presented. Comparison of the model with the experimental data of tribodesorbed gases from AISI 304 steel shows that for mild friction the amount of desorbed gases owing to the local temperature increase is much lower than the experimentally obtained values. This finding supports the hypothesis that structural modification of material is the main driving process for tribodesorption. The study also shows that a significant volume of material around the friction zone contributes to the tribodesorption process.