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Tribology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and
application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear. Tribology is a branch of mechanical engineering
and materials science.

Contents
1 Etymology
2 Fundamentals
2.1 Friction regimes
3 History
3.1 Stribeck curve
3.2 Jost Report
3.3 New areas of tribology
4 Applications
5 See also
6 References
7 Bibliography
8 External links

Etymology
The word tribology derives from the Greek root - of the verb , tribo, "I rub" in classic Greek and the
suffix -logy from -, -logia "study of", "knowledge of".

It was coined by the British physicist David Tabor,[1] and also by Peter Jost in 1964, a lubrication expert who
noticed the problems with increasing friction on machines, and started the new discipline of tribology.[2]

Fundamentals
The tribological interactions of a solid surface's exposed face with interfacing materials and environment may
result in loss of material from the surface. The process leading to loss of material is known as "wear". Major
types of wear include abrasion, friction (adhesion and cohesion), erosion, and corrosion. Wear can be
minimized by modifying the surface properties of solids by one or more "surface engineering" processes (also
called surface finishing) or by use of lubricants (for frictional or adhesive wear).

Estimated direct and consequential annual loss to industries in the USA due to wear is approximately 1-2% of
GDP. (Heinz, 1987). Engineered surfaces extend the working life of both original and recycled and resurfaced
equipment, thus saving large sums of money and leading to conservation of material, energy and the
environment. Methodologies to minimize wear include systematic approaches to diagnose the wear and to
prescribe appropriate solutions. Important methods include:

Point like contact theory was established by Heinrich Hertz in 1880s.


Fluid lubrication dynamics was established by Arnold Johannes Sommerfeld in 1900s.
Terotechnology, where multidisciplinary engineering and management techniques are used to protect
equipment and machinery from degradation (Peter Jost, 1972)
Horst Czichos's systems approach, where appropriate material is selected by checking properties against
tribological requirements under operating environment (H. Czichos,1978)
Asset Management by Material Prognosis - a concept similar to terotechnology which has been
introduced by the US Military (DARPA) for upkeep of equipment in good health and start-ready
condition for 24 hours. Good health monitoring systems combined with appropriate remedies at
maintenance and repair stages have led to improved performance, reliability and extended life cycle of
the assets, such as advanced military hardware and civil aircraft.

In recent years, micro- and nanotribology have been gaining ground. Frictional interactions in microscopically
small components are becoming increasingly important for the development of new products in electronics, life
sciences, chemistry, sensors and by extension for all modern technology.

Friction regimes

Friction regimes for sliding


lubricated surfaces have been
broadly categorized into:

1. Solid/boundary friction
2. Mixed friction
3. Fluid friction

on the basis of the Stribeck


Stribeck curve (Abscissa (horizontal curve. These curves clearly
axis): Speed, Ordinate (vertical axis): show the minimum value of
Friction) friction as the demarcation
1. Solid/boundary friction between full fluid-film A typical Stribeck curve obtained by
2. Mixed friction lubrication and some solid Martens
3. Fluid friction asperity interactions.

Stribeck and others systematically studied the variation of friction


between two liquid lubricated surfaces as a function of a dimensionless lubrication parameter N/P, where is
the dynamic viscosity (Ns/m2), N the sliding speed (m/s) and P the load projected on to the geometrical surface
(usually load per unit length of bearing in N/m).[3]

The Stribeck-curve has been a classic teaching element in tribology classes.[4]

History
Duncan Dowson surveyed the history of tribology in his book History of
Tribology (2nd edition).[5] This comprehensive book covers
developments from prehistory, through early civilizations
(Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt) and finally the key developments up to
the end of the twentieth century.

Historically, Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) was the first to enunciate


two laws of friction[6] (it was this connection that gave the name to the
Leonardo Centre for Tribology, one of the UK's leading research centres Tribological experiments suggested
on the subject). According to da Vinci, the frictional resistance was the by Leonardo da Vinci
same for two different objects of the same weight but making contacts
over different widths and lengths. He also observed that the force needed to overcome friction doubles when
the weight doubles. da Vinci's findings remained unpublished in his notebooks.[7][8] Da Vinci identified the
laws of friction in a notebook in 1493 and continued his studies of friction for 20 years.[9][10][11]
Guillaume Amontons rediscovered the classic rules (1699), but unlike da Vinci, made his findings public at the
Academie Royale des Sciences for verification.[12] They were further developed by Charles-Augustin de
Coulomb (1785).

Charles Hatchett (17601820) carried out the first reliable test on frictional wear using a simple reciprocating
machine to evaluate wear on gold coins. He found that compared to self-mated coins, coins with grits between
them wore at a faster rate.

Michael J Neale (1926 - 2012) was a leader the field of Tribology in the mid to late 1900's - For nearly 40 years
he specialised in solving problems in machinery design by applying his knowledge of Tribology. Neale was
respected as an educator with a gift for integrating theoretical work with his own practical experience to
produce easy-to-understand design guides. The Tribology Handbook, which he first edited in 1973 and updated
in 1995, is used around the world and forms the basis of numerous training courses for engineering designers.

Stribeck curve

The "Stribeck curve" or "StribeckHersey curve" (named after Richard Stribeck,[13][14][15] who heavily
documented and established examples of it, and Mayo D. Hersey[16][17]), which is used to categorize the
friction properties between two surfaces, was developed in the first half of the 20th century. The research of
Professor Richard Stribeck (18611950) was performed in Berlin at the Royal Prussian Technical Testing
Institute (MPA, now BAM). Similar work was previously performed around 1885 by Prof. Adolf Martens
(18501914) at the same Institute and in the mid-1870s by Dr. Robert H. Thurston [18][19] at the Stevens
Institute of Technology in the U.S. Prof. Dr. Thurston was therefore close to establishing the Stribeck curve,
but he presented no Stribeck-like graphs, as he evidently did not fully believe in the relevance of this
dependency. Since that time the Stribeck-curve has been a classic teaching element in tribology classes.[4]

The graphs of friction force reported by Stribeck stem from a carefully conducted, wide-ranging series of
experiments on journal bearings. Stribeck systematically studied the variation of friction between two liquid
lubricated surfaces.[3] His results were presented on 5 December 1901 during a public session of the railway
society and published on 6 September 1902. They clearly showed the minimum value of friction as the
demarcation between full fluid-film lubrication and some solid asperity interactions. Stribeck studied different
bearing materials and aspect ratios D/L from 1:1 to 1:2. The maximum sliding speed was 4 m/s and the
geometrical contact pressure was limited to 5 MPa. (These operating conditions were related to railway wagon
journal bearings.)

The reason why the form of the friction curve for liquid lubricated surfaces was later attributed to Stribeck,
although both Thurston and Martens achieved their results considerably earlier, (Martens even in the same
organization roughly 15 years before), may be because Stribeck published in the most important technical
journal in Germany at that time, Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI, Journal of German
Mechanical Engineers). Martens published his results only in the official journal of the Royal Prussian
Technical Testing Institute, which has now become BAM. The VDI journal, as one of the most important
journals for engineers, provided wide access to these data and later colleagues rationalized the results into the
three classical friction regimes. Thurston however, did not have the experimental means to record a continuous
graph of the coefficient of friction but only measured the friction at discrete points; this may be the reason why
the minimum in the coefficient of friction was not discovered by him. Instead, Thurston's data did not indicate
such a pronounced minimum of friction for a liquid lubricated journal bearing as was demonstrated by the
graphs of Martens and Stribeck.

Jost Report

The term tribology became widely used following The Jost Report in 1966. The report said that friction, wear
and corrosion were costing the UK huge sums of money every year. As a result, the UK set up several national
centres for tribology. Since then the term has diffused into the international engineering field, with many
specialists now identifying as tribologists.
There are now numerous national and international societies, such as the Society for Tribologists and
Lubrication Engineers (STLE) in the USA, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Tribology Group (IMechE
Tribology Group) in the UK or the German Society for Tribology (Gesellschaft fr Tribologie, www.gft-ev.de)
and MYTRIBOS[20] (Malaysian Tribology society).

Most technical universities have researchers working on tribology, often as part of mechanical engineering
departments. The limitations in tribological interactions are, however, no longer mainly determined by
mechanical designs, but by material limitations. So the discipline of tribology now counts at least as many
materials engineers, physicists and chemists as it does mechanical engineers.

New areas of tribology

Since the 1990s, new areas of tribology have emerged, including the nanotribology, biotribology, and green
tribology. These interdisciplinary areas study the friction, wear and lubrication at the nanoscale (including the
Atomic force microscopy and micro/nanoelectromechanical systems, MEMS/NEMS), in biomedical
applications (e.g., human joint prosthetics, dental materials), and ecological aspects of friction, lubrication and
wear (tribology of clean energy sources, green lubricants, biomimetic tribology).

Recently, intensive studies of superlubricity (phenomenon of vanishing friction) have sparked due to high
demand in energy savings. Development of new materials, such as graphene, initiated development of
fundamentally new approaches in the lubrication field. Moreover, the industrial process such as heat treatment
also change the wear rate.[21]

Applications
The study of tribology is commonly applied in bearing design but extends into almost all other aspects of
modern technology, even to such unlikely areas as hair conditioners and cosmetics such as lipstick, powders
and lipgloss.

Any product where one material slides or rubs over another is affected by complex tribological interactions,
whether lubricated like hip implants and other artificial prostheses, or unlubricated as in high temperature
sliding wear in which conventional lubricants cannot be used but in which the formation of compacted oxide
layer glazes have been observed to protect against wear.

Tribology plays an important role in manufacturing. In metal-forming operations, friction increases tool wear
and the power required to work a piece. This results in increased costs due to more frequent tool replacement,
loss of tolerance as tool dimensions shift, and greater forces required to shape a piece. The use of lubricants
which minimize direct surface contact reduces tool wear and power requirements.

See also
Space tribology
Bearings Galling Surface science
Cold welding List of tribology Tribocorrosion
Contact mechanics organizations Tribometer
Energetically modified Lubrication Wear
cement Oil additive Wetting
Ferrography Oil analysis
Fretting Peter Jost
Friction Space tribology

References
1. Field, J. (2008). "David Tabor. 23 October 1913 -- 26 November 2005".Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal
Society. 54: 425459. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2007.0031(https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.2007.0031).
2. Mitchell, Luke (November 2012). Ward, Jacob, ed. "The Fiction of Nonfriction".Popular Science. No. 5. 281
(November 2012): 40.
3. R. Stribeck, Die wesentlichen Eigenschaften der Gleit- und Rollenlager (The basic properties of sliding and rolling
bearings), Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure, 2002, Nr.36, Band 46, p. 1341-1348, p. 1432-1438 and 1463-
1470
4. H. Czichos, K.-H. Habig, Tribologie-Handbuch (Tribology handbook), Vieweg Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2nd edition, 2003,
ISBN 3-528-16354-2
5. Duncan Dowson, History of Tribology, Second Edition, Professional Engineering Publishing, 1997,ISBN 1-86058-070-
X
6. Palaci, Ismal (2007), Atomic Force Microscopy Studies of Nanotribology and Nanomechanics. p. 52. (http://biblion.epf
l.ch/EPFL/theses/2007/3905/EPFL_TH3905.pdf)
7. Armstrong-Hlouvry, Brian (1991). Control of machines with friction(https://books.google.com/?id=0zk_zI3xACgC&p
g=PA10). USA: Springer. p. 10. ISBN 0-7923-9133-0.
8. van Beek, Anton. "History of Science Friction"(http://www.tribology-abc.com/abc/history.htm). tribology-abc.com.
Retrieved 2011-03-24.
9. "Leonardo da Vincis studies of friction"(http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Hutchings_Leonardo_Friction_2016_v
2.pdf) (PDF).
10. Hutchings, Ian M. (2016-08-15)."Leonardo da Vincis studies of friction"(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/articl
e/pii/S0043164816300588). Wear. 360361: 5166. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2016.04.019 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.wear.
2016.04.019).
11. "Study reveals Leonardo da Vinci's 'irrelevant' scribbles mark the spot where he first recorde
d the laws of friction"(htt
p://phys.org/news/2016-07-reveals-leonardo-da-vinci-irrelevant.html) . Retrieved 2016-07-26.
12. Singer, Irwin (December 1999). "Amontons Rules of Friction Formulated 300 ears Y Ago.". MRS Bulletin.
13. Stribeck, R. (1901), Kugellager fr beliebige Belastungen (Ball Bearings for any Stress), Zeitschrift desereins
V
Deutscher Ingenieure 45.
14. Stribeck, R. (1902), Die wesentlichen Eigenschaften der Gleit- und Rollenlager (Characteristics of Plain and Roller
Bearings), Zeit. des VDI 46.
15. Jacobson, Bo (2003), The Stribeck memorial lecture.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B
6V57-497HBKM-4&_user=10&_coverDate=1 1%2F30%2F2003&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_doca
nchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1433619808&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlV ersion=0
&_userid=10&md5=634f43c7420d0709195dbd4ac5e8a719)
16. Hersey, M. D. (1914), The Laws of Lubrication of Horizontal Journal Bearings, J. aW sh. Acad. Sci., 4, 542-552.
17. Biography of Mayo D. Hersey(http://www.nndb.com/people/221/000169711/)
18. Robert H. Thurston, Friction and lubrication - Determination of the laws and co-fficients of friction by new methods
and with new apparatus, Trbner and Co., Ludgate Hill, London, 1879
19. Robert H. Thurston, A treatise on friction and lost work in machinery and millwork, John iley&Sons,
W New York,
1894, fifth edition
20. http://www.mytribos.org
21. ZIA, Abdul Wasy; Zhou, Zhifeng; Po-wan, Shum.; Lawrence Li, Kwak Yan (24 January 2017). "The effect of two-step
heat treatment on hardness, fracture toughness, and wear of dif
ferent biased diamond-like carbon coatings". Surface and
Coatings Technology. doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2017.01.089(https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.surfcoat.2017.01.089).

Bibliography
Surface Wear Analysis, Treatment, and Prevention: R. Chattopadhyay, published by ASM-
International, Materials Park, OH, 2001, ISBN 0-87170-702-0.
Advanced Thermally Assisted Surface Engineering Processes: Ramnarayan Chattopadhyay, Kluwer
Academic Publishers, MA (now Springer, NY), 2004.
DeGarmo, E. Paul, J T. Black, and Ronald A. Kohser. Materials and Processes in Manufacturing. Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-02-328621-0
Zum Gahr, Karl-Heinz (1987). Microstructure and Wear of Materials. Tribology Series, 10. Elsevier.
ISBN 0-444-42754-6.
Heshmat, Hooshang. Tribology of Interface Layers. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8247-5832-5.
Litt, Fred. "Starting from Scratch: Tribology Basics Volume I" (PDF) . STLE. Retrieved 2010-06-10.

External links

Look up tribology in
Neale Consulting Engineers - the company started by Michael J Wiktionary, the free
Neale made famous by the Tribology Handbook dictionary.
Malaysia Dealer Formulation Engine Oil
International Tribology Council Wikimedia Commons has
Tribology NL an overview of tribology topics targeted at media related to Tribology.
mechanical engineers.
IET Tribology Network
Leonardo Centre for Tribology, University of Sheffield
National Centre for Advanced Tribology (nCATS), University of Southampton
Laboratory of Tribology,Moscow
Tribology Research Forum
Stribeck Simulator (MATLAB)
Southwest Research Institute - Tribology Research and Evaluations Group

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Categories: Tribology Friction Engineering mechanics Materials science Materials degradation


Metallurgy Mechanical engineering

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