What we do in this group....

Tribology is a derivation of the Greek word "Tribos" which means "rubbing". The activities of this research group cover areas where:

wear occurs due to surfaces which rub against each other (sliding wear)

particles may be entrained in the contact (3 body wear)

particles may cause impact on the surface (erosion) or gouge out the surface (abrasion)

and where wear occurs due to formation and collapse of bubbles of air at high pressures (cavitation).

Atomic force micrograph of the eroded face of a superlattice PVD coating

In particular, their interactions with corrosion (tribo-corrosion) are being examined and the rationale for defining such interactions-so important for Engineers charged with controlling such processes-is being studied. Significant progress has been made in the past 10 years in the UK in the study of tribological phenomena, particularly in the areas of erosion-corrosion and abrasion and the development of engineering "maps" of such processes.

This group is concerned with developing maps for particulate erosion, micro-abrasion, sliding wear and cavitation, in corrosive environments, both at room and at elevated temperatures. It has an established track record in mapping slurry erosion-corrosion of coated and uncoated materials, solid particle erosion of MMCs at elevated temperatures, and for erosion-corrosion of new generation "superlattice" coatings. These maps may indicate a wide range of phenomena i.e. the mechanism of wear, the extent of wastage and interaction between the processes, all components of tackling the complex area of Tribology from the perspective of the Mechanical Engineer. Over 110 papers have been generated on this work to date. The first edition of Tribologia, a newsletter of the research and conference activities of students involved in the group has just been produced.

The group is home to the EPSRC funded network on tribo-corrosion: TrICorr-Net: