A model of dry, wearless friction between two atomistically flat, two-dimen
sional workpieces is introduced. This isotropic elastic model allows us to
study the how of energy away from the sliding interface during the friction
al process. Although a direct quantitative comparison of the model with mol
ecular dynamics data is not possible, qualitative comparisons indicate that
much of the early-time nonplastic behavior of molecular dynamics data can
be described by a simple elastic model. Also our results support previous s
peculation that it is appropriate to introduce viscous damping effects when
formulating lower-dimensional models of such physical processes. (C) 2000
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.