Does water lubrication affect friction differently for rocks and soils? Evidence and open questions

Abstract The present paper focuses on the shear strength exhibited by rocks and soils when sliding along dry and wet surfaces, with this mechanism of failure being strongly related to the water lubrication phenomenon. It is well known that the frictional behaviour of geomaterials requires multiscale investigation. Under this perspective, experimental evidence of both friction at the grain scale (i.e. interparticle friction) and friction along sliding surfaces of rock and granular soil samples (i.e. surface friction) are analysed by using data from the literature. The review is addressed at linking different scales, stating the differences between rocks and soils in terms of frictional response to sliding and trying to point out still open problems for the research.