JEREMIAH LAZARUS-MOLALETSI

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Tribology is the study of surfaces moving relative to one another, a phenomenon that affects
our lives in a multitude of ways every day (Hood, 2014). The term tribology is based on the
Greek word for rubbing and, although the term itself was not coined until 1964, there are
images of tribology in action from as long ago as ancient Egypt, when early tribologists used
oil to help facilitate sliding of large statues. Generally, tribology includes three key topics
friction, wear and lubrication. Friction is, by definition, the resistance to motion. The
magnitude of this resistance is a function of the materials, geometries and surface features of
the bodies in contact, as well as the operating conditions and environment. It is often
desirable to minimize friction to order to maximize the efficiency of a component or process.
Friction increases with load and surface roughness and can be decreased using a lubricant.
While wear is the loss of material due to that motion and lubrication is the use of a fluid to
minimize friction and wear (Hutchings, 2011).The field is necessarily interdisciplinary and
utilizes skills from mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemistry and
chemical engineering and more. Most mechanical components have one or more moving
parts. This means that something is moving relative to something else, so there is tribology
happening. In some components, such as bearings and gears, the goal is to minimize the
resistance to sliding or rolling so that as little energy as possible is lost to friction. In other
components, such as brakes and clutches, we want maximum sliding resistance in order to
limit the relative motions (Hutchings, 2011).

Figure 1

Tribology widely affects a vast majority of industries for example the manufacturing
industry has processes that rely on tribology, such as rolling, turning, stamping, grinding and
polishing. Further, most transportation methods depend on tribology, not only within the
mechanical components that drive them, but also at the contact between the wheels and the
surfaces on which they slide or roll. There are also examples of tribology in construction and
exploration equipment such as excavators, oil rigs, mine slurry pumps and tunnel digging
drills. The processes of friction and wear, and the use of lubricants to control friction and
wear are ubiquitous in a variety of industries.In addition to these applications of tribology,
there are many more devices and other products that we use regularly whose functions rely
on tribology. They include products and processes that arise in healthcare, sports, nature and
more. In some cases we want to maximum the friction such as on the soles of our shoes and
in others we want to minimize friction such as on the bottom of a bobsled (Hood, 2014).
There are many examples of tribology and tribology enabled function in the world of sports.
For example, the bottoms of athletic shoes are fine-tuned to provide just the right amount of
resistance to sliding for a given sport. Also, footballs and balls for other sports must be
designed to be grip-able, but not too sticky. There are many examples in sports equipment
where tribology can be the difference between winning or not. Common examples in winter
sports include snow skis, bobsleds and curling stones. There are also many natural processes
where tribology is relevant. Some of these processes occur on very large length scales. For
example, earthquakes occur when friction builds up over time until the earth cannot withstand
the force and there is a shift (Aracil, 2021).

Figure 2

Tribology is particularly important in today's world because so much energy is lost to friction
in mechanical components. To use less energy, we need to minimize the amount that is
wasted. Significant energy is lost due to friction in sliding interfaces. Therefore, finding ways
to minimize friction and wear through new technologies in tribology is critical to a greener
and more sustainable world. Global energy consumption is expected to grow in upcoming
years, and the economic, environmental, and safety costs of wear induced failures can be
extensive (Macpherson, 2018). Moreover, many of the challenges facing new energy efficient
technologies such as wind turbines are tribological in nature. Therefore, tribology is
critically important to addressing some of the world's key issues related to energy efficiency
and the economic and societal implications of energy usage. This lab experiment focused on
proving friction between 2 bodies in contact and the adverse effects of many different
conditions on the friction such as an angle of incline. For the calculation of the coefficient of
friction the equation 1.0 .
The coefficient of friction can be computed from:
μ=F Fric /F N
Equation 1

Where ;
F N =¿ The normal force
F Fric = The frictional force

This equation was used was used to obtain the coefficient of friction; this coefficient is a
measure of the amount of friction existing between two surfaces meaning that the greater the
coefficient of friction then the greater the friction between the 2 surfaces. These values
usually run from 0-1, but they can also be higher than one if the materials are especially
sticky (Macpherson, 2018). Essentially, if objects have a coefficient value of zero, there’s no
friction. This isn’t common, but it is possible with materials that have superfluidity. If
materials have a coefficient value of one, it means the friction force is the same as the normal
force. In other words, the force required to move the object is equal to that object's
weight. Objects can also have a friction value higher than one. For instance, rubber is a
common material that can have a particularly high coefficient of friction. As a general rule,
most materials that aren’t wet tend to fall in the 0.3-0.6 range.  Furthermore another frictional
force that exists is the sliding force which opposes the movement between two contact
surfaces that slide against each other. This force depends on the type of contact surfaces
materials and finishing level and on the load applied in the direction perpendicular to the
motion direction normal force (Wang, 2021).
in mathematical terms, the sliding friction force is defined as follows:
F R =B r × N
Equation 2

where:
Br = sliding friction coefficient
N = normal force or load

If two bodies are initially stationary, the resistance force is called the static friction force
and represents the minimum force that must be applied to start moving the two bodies.
When the two bodies are in relative motion, a force lower than the static friction force
is sufficient to keep the speed constant: this is called the dynamic friction force (Hood,
2014). The friction coefficient is obtained experimentally for both static friction and dynamic
friction. There are different types of friction which are static, kinetic, deformation, molecular
and rolling. Each has its own coefficient of friction. Static coefficient Static friction is the
force that holds back a stationary object up to the point that it just starts moving. Thus, the
static coefficient of friction concerns the force restricting the movement of an object that is
stationary on a relatively smooth, hard surface (Jones, 2019).Kinetic coefficient Once you
overcome static friction, kinetic friction is the force holding back regular motion. This,
kinetic fiction coefficient of friction concerns the force restricting the movement of an object
that is sliding on a relatively smooth, hard surface.Deformation coefficient ,the deformation
coefficient of friction concerns the force restricting the movement of an object that is sliding
or rolling and one or both surfaces are relatively soft and deformed by the forces .Molecular
coefficient , molecular coefficient of friction concerns the force restricting the movement of
an object that is sliding on an extremely smooth surface or where a fluid is involved. Rolling
coefficient ,the rolling coefficient of friction combines static, deformation and molecular
coefficients of friction. This coefficient of friction can be made quite low (Giannocaro,
2017).There are certain laws that govern friction which involve that the frictional force is
always tangential to the contact surface and acts in the direction opposite to that in which the
body tends to move.The second law being that the magnitude of frictional force is self-
adjusting to the applied force till the limiting frictional force is reached and at the limiting
frictional force the body will have the impending motion. Furthermore another law states that
the limiting frictional force Fmax is directly proportional to normal reaction Fmax = µsN). The
fourth law states that for a body in motion, kinetic frictional force Fk developed is less than
that of limiting frictional force Fmax and the relation Fk = µkN is applicable the frictional force
also depends upon the roughness of the surface and the material in contact and is independent
of the area of contact between the two surfaces and the speed of the body.

Moving on there different types of friction that are there which includes static friction which
acts on objects when they are resting on a surface for example, if you are hiking in the woods,
there is static friction between your shoes and the trail each time you put down your foot
Without this static friction, your feet would slip out from under you, making it difficult to
walk which is what , exactly what happens if you try to walk on ice. That's because ice is
very slippery and offers very little friction. Another type of friction is rolling friction which is
friction that acts on objects when they are rolling over a surface for example when maybe a
soccer ball rolls along the ground and then eventually comes to a stop because the rolling
friction acts in the opposite direction to the motion of the ball. Rolling friction is much
weaker than sliding friction or static friction. This explains why most forms of ground
transportation use wheels, including bicycles, cars, 4-wheelers, roller skates, scooters, and
skateboards. Ball bearings are another use of rolling friction. The third type of friction is fluid
friction which is a type of friction that acts on objects that are moving through a fluid. Afluid
is a substance that can flow and take the shape of its container. Fluids include liquids and
gases. If you've ever tried to push your open hand through the water in a tub or pool, then
you've experienced fluid friction. You can feel the resistance of the water against your
hand.The vast applications of friction include industries such as the transportation industry as
well as in the household. In the transportation industry automobile brakes rely on friction as it
slows the vehicle when it converts the kinetic energy to heat. Disk brakes also rely on it as
well as drum brakes, brake shoes or pads. Rail adhesion is the grip which a train’s wheel has
on the rails. Moreover, an essential design and safety factor for automobiles is road
slipperiness. Split friction is a dangerous condition which arises because of varying friction on
either side of a car. While for the household friction also helps in heating and igniting
matchsticks. When the head of the matchstick rubs against the surface of the matchbox, it
produces fire. Further, we make use of sticky pads for preventing objects from slipping off
smooth surfaces as it efficiently increases the friction coefficient between the object and the
surface.
Transportation

Automobile brakes rely on friction as it slows the vehicle when it converts the
kinetic energy to heat. Disk brakes also rely on it as well as drum brakes, brake
shoes or pads. Rail adhesion is the grip which a train’s wheel has on the rails.
Moreover, an essential design and safety factor for automobiles is road slipperiness.
Split friction is a dangerous condition which arises because of varying friction on
either side of a car.

We use an instrument for measuring friction on a surface which is called tribometer.

Household Usage

Friction also helps in heating and igniting matchsticks. When the head of the
matchstick rubs against the surface of the matchbox, it produces fire. Further, we
make use of sticky pads for preventing objects from slipping off smooth surfaces as
it efficiently increases the friction coefficient between the object and the surface.
(Aracil, 2021)

(Wang, 2021) (Macpherson, 2018)

(Jones, 2019)

(Hood, 2014)

(Hutchings, 2011)

(Giannocaro, 2017)