PRESSURE MELTING AND ICE SKATING

Pressure melting cannot be responsible for the low friction of ice. The pressure needed to reach the melting temperature is above the compressive failure stress and, if it did occur, high squeeze losses would result in very thin films. Pure liquid water cannot coexist with ice much below -20 degrees C at any pressure and friction does not increase suddenly in that range. If frictional heating and pressure melting contribute equally, the length of the wetted contact could not exceed 15 mu m at a speed of 5 m/s, which seems much too short. If pressure melting is the dominant process, the water films are less than 0.08 mu m thick because of the high pressures.