Stress transfer, lamellae

One of the major themes of boundary lubrication is to transfer the shear stress at the interface of direct solid contact to somewhere inside the lubricating layer, to achieve low friction and high wear resistance. In this sense, materials with low shear strength, such as liquid films, soft metals, and lamella solids, can be employed as candidate lubricants. 

Fig. 6 Micromechanical model of a section of a semi-crystalline polymer with lamellae oriented perpendicular to the principal stress direction showing the long period L and the thicknesses of crystalline (Lc) and amorphous layers (La) the latter are composed of loose segments, entangled chains and more or less extended tie molecules. Large forces can be transferred at those points (o) where highly extended tie molecules (eTM) enter crystalline lamellae...

---