Wave-Mediated Energy Dissipation in Anomalously Low-Friction and Low-Wear Tribosystems: Analytical Models, Numerical Simulation, and Experimental Validation

Tribosystems operating in the anomalously low friction and wear (ALF/ALW) regime dissipate mechanical energy through mechanisms that depart fundamentally from the classical heat-generation picture, yet no quantitative framework linking wave-component dynamics to macroscopic friction has existed to date. Building on the first author’s prior experimental and theoretical work, this study develops and experimentally validates three coupled analytical models for ALF/ALW energy dissipation. In the Prandtl–Tomlinson framework, applied at the nano-asperity scale (lattice period a ≈ 0.256 nm), a periodic wave component Fw(t) reduces the effective corrugation parameter ηeff below unity; the ALF onset threshold is reached at a normalised wave amplitude Aw/Aw,max ≥ 0.82. A Greenwood–Williamson multi-asperity model, parameterised from experimental roughness data (Ra, Rmax, Sm), translates surface morphology into macroscopic friction reduction via a wave suppression factor Fw. A phonon energy partition model predicts that approximately 73% of input mechanical power is redirected through the wave/phonon channel at the ALF threshold, a model-based estimate consistent with the observed contact temperature rise of less than 2 °C at 20 MPa. Experimental results show a sevenfold load-bearing increase, >100-fold silicon enrichment, a microrelief orientation shift from approximately 15° to 90°. Finite element modelling, using the experimentally measured friction coefficients as prescribed boundary conditions rather than as a predicted output, shows that the MBST subsurface layer acts as an elastic energy concentrator, consistent with the proposed mechanism.