Research needs and opportunities in friction

Tribology Intemationul

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Elsevier

Saence

Vol. 28. No. I. 2. 499, 1995 Limited. Printed in Great Britain

0301-679X(95)00075-5

Rese’arch Repor

Needs

and Opportunities

of the workshop

on friction

A war cslhop was heid in Washington in July 1992 with the purpose of providing those responsible for financir g research programmes with an overview of the needs and orti:.ni;ties tion.

The

for focus

research on

in friction

fricwas

chosen because a number of similar studies had already taken place in the field of wear. Thirty-four scientists equz!ly distributed among industr-ies, government agencies and u+ersities were invited to prtici~,ate. After introductory lectures by David Tabor and Irving Singer (the latter presenting a review of a previous Nat0 Summer Institu: e on Friction), the activities of the workshop proceeded in five stages. First, t:#reprobable impact of better frictisrz c,ontrol in the diverse industries was reviewed. Obviously, energy savings could be achieved in transportation, power transmission and ot!Ier machinery, increased productivity and product quality wouid result :?om better control of friction and vikations in production equipment , the textile industry, the

The Amerr’can Society of Mechanical eers, Ci7TD Vol. 28, 1994.

Engin-

in Friction

sponsored

by the National

material processing industries, in civil engineering and in sports equipment; progress in friction control would also enable novel technologies such as high-density data storage, micromechanical systems and oblique drilling for oil at longer distances; finally safety and health will be improved in prostheses, shoe and tyre traction and1 control of noise pollution. The second stage consisted in analysing in more detail the needs for enhanced control of friction in the categories described above. The most important of those are kiction control in extreme conditions where present lubricants are not usable, environment friendly lubricants, friction control of unlubricated systems, better relation between friction and machine dynamics, relation between friction and surface topography, better mathematical friction models for the design engineer and better information transfer in tribology. In the third stage, the recent advances in the understanding and measurement of friction were reviewed and their most profitable opportunities for progress were analysed. The science of friction has recently expanded into atomic models of friction, surface science and

Science

Foundation

rheology of Auids in very thin spaces. Novel methods for the observation of surface chemistry during rubbing have been deve?oped and new concepts have arisen. The analysis resulted rn a number of research recommendations that include furthering the theory of friction, including an mtegration of the atomic and macroscopic viewpoints, controlled experiments verifyying these concepts, physical and chemical behaviour of fluids in contact, thibochemisthy, surface dynamics, etc. The fourth stage consisted of a match between the technical needs of the second stage and the potential supply of knowledge from fundamental research and the elaboration of coherent research programmes that serve this purpose. Some of these programmes are the development of a fundamental science of friction, study of lubricant chemistry, the surface science of lubrication, rheology of fluids and materials, advances in microelastohydrodynamic lubrication, the mechanics of systems in friction, the materials science of friction and the study of biological friction and lubrication phenomena.

1: E. Fischer

Tribology

International

Volume 28 Number 7 November

1995

499