MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology

LESSON NOTE

Introduction to Tribology

The science of Tribology (Greek tribos: rubbing) concentrates on contact mechanics of moving
interfaces that generally involve energy dissipation. It encompasses the science fields of
Adhesion, Friction, Lubrication and Wear.

Why is Tribology Important?

Traditional Applications

Tribology is the study of surfaces moving relative to one another, a phenomenon that affects our
lives in a multitude of ways every day. 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 the resistance to relative motion, wear is the loss of material due to that
motion, and lubrication is the use of a fluid (or in some cases a solid) to minimize friction and
wear. The field is necessarily interdisciplinary and utilizes skills from mechanical engineering,
materials science and engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering and more. Tribology is
both technologically-relevant and scientifically-fascinating, and it's definitely an exciting time to
be a tribologist!

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.

1|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

There are also many manufacturing 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.

Everyday Examples of Tribology

In addition to the more traditional 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).

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 have to 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, and erosion due to water or wind is
2|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

the process of the earth wearing away over time. Other tribological phenomena occur on much
smaller scales. For example, the feet of geckos have evolved to enable them to preferentially
stick to surfaces (or not) so that they can effectively walk on walls. Also, scales on snakes
provide the specialized contact with the ground that they need to move along both quickly and
quietly. Nature has found many innovative solutions to tribological challenges.

Lastly, there are many other examples of tribology in fields as varied as music - for example
drawing a bow across violin strings to play notes - and cosmetics - where significant resources
are invested to make skin or hair products that have the right feel. Pretty much everywhere we
turn there is another example of tribology!

Role of Tribology in Energy Efficiency

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, straining both resources and
the environment. At the same time, a huge amount of energy is lost to friction: for example,
seven quads of energy are wasted annually due to friction in passenger cars globally. Further
waste occurs due to wear of contacting materials, as the energy required to replace parts is
substantial, and the economic, environmental, and safety costs of wear-induced failures can be
extensive. 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.

Friction

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. Generally speaking, friction increases with load and
surface roughness and can be decreased by the use of a lubricant.

Friction is the tangential resistance to motion between two contacting solid bodies. In 1699,
Amontons proposed two "laws" of friction: (1) friction force is independent of nominal (or
apparent) contact area between the two bodies, and (2) friction force is directly proportional to
the surface-normal component of load. The second of these two laws gives us the equation F = μ
W, where F is the friction force, W is the load and μ is the friction coefficient. To understand this
relationship, consider the inclined plane experiment shown in the figure on the left below. As the
plane is gradually tilted up and the incline angle ϴ is increased, the component of the force due
to the weight of the block in the direction of sliding increases. The friction coefficient, which is
3|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

the ratio of the friction force F to the normal force W, is simply equal to tan ϴ. Also, the
magnitude of the friction before sliding begins is always greater than that during sliding. This
difference is illustrated in the figure on the right below, where the pre-sliding friction is called
the static friction and the friction after sliding begins is called the kinetic friction.

In reality, friction is not just a function of load and angle, but is also a complex function of the
material and surface properties of the two contacting bodies. Friction is measured using an
instrument called a tribometer, where the lateral force (friction) and normal force (load) are
measured while one body moves relative to another. Most tribometers measure friction either
during reciprocating or unidirectional motion. As illustrated in the figure below, reciprocating
motion occurs when one body is slide back and forth over another and unidirectional motion
occurs when one body travels through a circular path on the other.

Wear

Wear is the loss of materials, usually due to sliding. Typically wear is undesirable as it can lead
to increased friction and ultimately to component failure. Like friction, wear is typically
minimized by using a lubricant to separate the two bodies so that they do not directly touch one
another.

4|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

The two most common types of wear are abrasive, in which a harder material removes material
from a softer one, and adhesive, in which two bodies adhere to one another locally, so that
material is transferred from one to the other. These two wear modes are illustrated below. In
adhesive wear, the two sliding surfaces, or features on those surfaces, called asperties,
temporarily form junctions between the two materials. Then, as sliding continues, those junctions
have to be broken. If a junction is weak enough, shear will occur at the original interface
between the two bodies and there will be negligible wear. However, if a junction is stronger than
one of the two materials, then shear may occur within the material, resulting in adhesive wear.
Abrasive wear occurs when a harder material ploughs into a softer surface, removing material
from it. This mode of wear tends to be more severe than adhesive wear in most cases. In abrasive
wear, if ploughing is done by an asperity on the harder material, the process is called two-body
wear; if ploughing occurs through contact with a wear particle or debris, then the process is
called three-body wear.

The amount of wear can be measured in several different ways, most of which involve
measurement of either mass change or the size of a worn region. The latter is more common
since it can be applied for any case where there is a worn region (wear scar) that is large enough
to measure. Wear scar size can be measured using an optical image, such as that shown below, or
using profilometry. In the case of an optical image, parameters such as the wear depth or wear
volume must be calculated using a measured wear scar dimension and the known geometry of
the contacting body. A profilometer can give a direct measurement of both the in-plane
dimensions and depth of the wear scar. Wear can be reported simply as a volume or as one of the
in-plane dimensions of the wear scar, such as the wear depth shown in the example below. In this

5|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

example, the wear increases with number of cycles, as expected, and one of the samples exhibits
more wear resistance than the other.

Wear is typically quantified using what is called a wear rate, which is how fast material is
removed from the surface. Although several different units for wear rate are acceptable, a
common unit is volume, V, per distance, d. In this form, the wear rate (V/d) can be described by
Archard's wear law: V/d = K W / H, where W is the load, H is material hardness and K is a
material-specific wear coefficient. This expression states that, as expected, there will be more
wear at higher loads and on softer materials. To facilitate comparison between tests performed at
different loads, the wear rate is often normalized by the load such that wear is reported in units of
volume per distance per load. The other term in Archard's wear law is the wear coefficient. There
is much discussion about this coefficient since its value varies by orders of magnitude and is
highly dependent on materials, surface features as well as operating and environment conditions.
However, generally speaking, the trends predicted by the simple Archard wear equation have
been found to describe experimental observations well in many cases.

In addition to adhesion and abrasion, another common wear mode in mechanical components is
surface fatigue. Fatigue is, as the name implies, a process that occurs after many sliding cycles. It
is common in components that have rolling elements where subsurface stresses lead to cracks
within the material. These cracks grow towards the surface over time, eventually resulting in
worn material, a process known as pitting. Other modes of wear that can occur in some
components and under some conditions are impact by erosion or percussion, chemical wear
(such as corrosion), and electrical-arc-induced wear.

Lubricants and Lubrication

Lubricants are primarily used to separate two sliding surfaces to minimize friction and wear.
They also perform other functions, such as carrying heat and contaminants away from the
interface. Lubricants are often liquids, typically consisting of oil and added chemicals, called
additives, which help the oils better perform specific functions. However, there are some
applications where lubricants can be gases or even solids. The basic premise of liquid lubrication
is that, although there is resistance to shear within the fluid due to its viscosity, that viscous
resistance is much smaller than the frictional resistance during dry sliding. The performance of a

6|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

lubricated contact is therefore largely determined by viscosity. Viscosity is a fluid's resistance to

flow and is the ratio of shear stress to shear strain rate. A fluid in which viscosity is a constant,
i.e. there is a linear relationship between stress and strain rate, is called Newtonian. However, in
reality, many lubricants experience changes in viscosity due to temperature, pressure and shear
rate during operating, and so behave as non-Newtonian fluids under some conditions.
Controlling these variations is important because viscosity plays a key role in determining
lubricant film thickness. A very small viscosity will result in a film that is too thin to prevent
surface asperities from coming into contact, while a very large viscosity will result in sufficient
surface separation, but may also lead to unacceptably high viscous friction. In general, we want
to use the least viscous fluid that results in complete surface separation. Viscosity is measured
using an instrument called a rheometer as shown below.

Although the friction in lubricated interfaces is typically less than that without a lubricant, there
is still friction, and the magnitude of that friction depends on the fluid viscosity and operating
conditions. The effects of relative speed, load and viscosity on friction are described by the
Stribeck curve. This curve identifies three key lubrication regimes: boundary, mixed and full
film. At low speed, low viscosity, or high load, the fluid cannot support the load and there is
direct surface-surface contact. This is called boundary lubrication, where only lubricant
molecules adsorbed on the surface provide any friction reduction, and the friction is relatively
high under any conditions. At high speed, high viscosity, or low load, the fluid completely
separates the two surfaces. This is called the full film or hydrodynamic lubrication regime. In
this regime, friction increases with speed, viscosity and the inverse of load because those
conditions result in more viscous resistance to shear. Between boundary and full film lubrication,
there is a regime called mixed lubrication where some parts of the interface are separated by
fluid and others are not. Various components operate in one or more of the lubrication regimes
during operation.

Lubricants are formulated to meet the demands of a wide variety of applications. Formulations
begin with one or more mineral or synthetic base oils. Base oils can be derived from several
sources, including crude oil, natural gas, and plants or animals, where the source of the base oil
will determine many of the formulated fluid's final properties. Most base oils are fortified with
chemical additives to enable optimum performance. Additives may be dissolved or suspended in
the fluid and typically comprise between 0.1 and 30 percent of the total oil volume. There are
additives to perform a variety of functions, including minimizing the variation of viscosity with
operating conditions, minimizing boundary friction, increasing chemical stability, and
controlling contamination.
7|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

Liquid lubricants are extremely effective and are certainly the most widely used types of
lubrication. However, there are some conditions or components where liquids are not an option.
In some cases, particularly those where light weight is important and the loads are low, an
interface can be lubricated by a gas. For example, in air bearings, a thin film of pressurized air
can provide a low-friction, load-bearing interface. Another alternative is using solids as a
lubricant. Solid lubricants are typically materials that provide low friction because there is little
resistance to shear within the materials themselves. For example, materials such as graphite or
molybdenum disulfide are layered and so can accommodate shear between their atomic layers.
Other solid lubricants are based on soft materials, such as noble metals, whose inherent
resistance to shear stress is low. Although solid lubricants are not viable in some cases, the
number and variety of applications that might use them, either instead of or in addition to a
liquid, is growing rapidly due to recent advancements in materials tribology.

Other Topics in Tribology

There are several topics that are integrally related to the core areas of friction, wear and
lubrication, but that deserve their own description. These are surface roughness, contact
mechanics and nanotribology. Each topic will be briefly introduced here.

The behavior of sliding interfaces can be significantly affected by the roughness of the surfaces
of the two bodies. Surface roughness is typically measured using profilometry and is often
reported as the root-mean-square value of the height of the surface features, or asperities. Other
parameters that describe surface roughness are the average of the surface heights and the
skewness and kurtosis of the distribution of surface heights. The effect of roughness on friction
and wear is dependent on the type of sliding. For example, larger roughness will increase friction
and wear in an interface that is dominated by abrasion while it may decrease friction and wear in
an adhesive interface. Regardless, roughness is a key property of any sliding interface.

8|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University
MCE 321- TRIBOLOGY Introduction to Tribology
LESSON NOTE

Another property of contacting bodies that can affect sliding is elastic deformation. Many
tribological interfaces are subject to very high loads and, more importantly, high pressures. In
these cases, the bodies themselves deform elastically, which can facilitate sliding in a lubricated
interface. This situation is called elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication, since the film thickness is due
to both the elastic deformation of the bodies and the hydrodynamic flow of the fluid. Elastic
deformation is described by classical contact mechanics, typically Hertz contact theory, which
enables us to predict the amount of deformation for a given geometry, elasticity and load.

An emerging field within tribology is friction, wear and lubrication at the nanoscale, called
nanotribology. Nanotribology is relevant to a variety of novel small-scale devices as well as
characterization tools, all of which rely on the nanoscale contact between two materials to
function. Nanotribology is also scientifically fascinating because some of the "laws" that we use
to describe larger-scale tribological phenomena no longer apply at the nanoscale. A significant
amount of research in this area is performed using an atomic force microscope, where an
extremely sharp probe interacts with a surface. The contact between the probe and surface is only
nanometers in size. Such contacts have been found to exhibit unique and sometimes counter-
intuitive behavior, and understanding that behavior is the focus of many exciting research
projects currently underway.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Define Tribology
2. Why is tribology important?
3. Briefly explain the following terms: (i) Friction (ii) Wear (iii) Lubrication (iv) Lubricant
4. State the functions of the following: (i) Tribometer (ii) Profilometry (iii) Rheometer
5. Differentiate between adhesive wear and abrasive wear.
6. What is nanotribology?

9|Page

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Landmark University