Tribology On The Small Scale

Friction, lubrication, adhesion, and wear are prevalent physical phenomena in everyday life and in many key technologies. This book explains how these tribological phenomena originate from atomistic and microscale physical phenomena and shows how this understanding can be used to solve macroscale tribology problems. The book is intended to serve both as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in tribology and as an introduction to the field for those scientists and engineers working with technologies where a good grasp of tribology is essential.

Friction, lubrication, adhesion, and wear are prevalent physical phenomena in everyday life and in many key technologies. This book incorporates a bottom-up approach to friction, lubrication, and wear into a versatile textbook on tribology. This is done by focusing on how these tribological phenomena occur on the small scale — the atomic to the micrometer scale — a field often called nanotribology. The book covers the microscopic origins of the common tribological concepts of roughness, elasticity, plasticity, friction coefficients, and wear coefficients. Some macroscale concepts (like elasticity) scale down well to the micro- and atomic-scale, while other macroscale concepts (like hydrodynamic lubrication) do not. In addition, this book also has chapters on topics not typically found in tribology texts: surface energy, surface forces, lubrication in confined spaces, and the atomistic origins of friction and wear. These chapters cover tribological concepts that become increasingly important at the small scale: capillary condensation, disjoining pressure, contact electrification, molecular slippage at interfaces, atomic scale stick-slip, and atomic bond breaking. Throughout the book, numerous examples are provided that show how a nanoscale understanding of tribological phenomena is essential to the proper engineering of important modern technologies such as MEMS, disk drives, and nanoimprinting. For the second edition, all the chapters have been revised and updated to incorporate the most recent advancements in nanoscale tribology. Another important enhancement to the second edition is the addition of problem sets at the end of each chapter.

On previous occasions each Symposium has focused attention on a current and significant research topic, usually reflecting the interests of the Leeds or Lyon research groups, however this time the main focus was on the vitally important subject of technology transfer, providing the 154 delegates from 21 countries with the rare opportunity to discuss the impact of their studies on machine design.

Surface science and tribology play very critical roles in many industries. Manufacture and use of almost all consumer and industrial products rely on the application of advanced surface and tribological knowledge. The fourth in a series, Surfactants in Tribology, Volume 4 provides an update on research and development activities connecting surfactants and tribological phenomena. Written by renowned subject matter experts, the book demonstrates how improved design of surfactants can be harnessed to control tribological phenomena. Profusely illustrated and copiously referenced, the chapters also discuss novel approaches to control tribological phenomena using surfactants including green surfactants. It also discusses the underlying tribological and surface science issues relevant to many situations in diverse industries. The information in this volume provides a cutting-edge reference connecting the fields of surfactants and tribology as a way forward to novel, enhanced methods of controlling lubrication, friction, and wear. It reflects the latest developments, highlighting the relevance of surfactants in tribological phenomena in a broad range of industries. As we learn more about the connection between surfactants and tribology, new and improved ways to control lubrication, friction, and wear utilizing surfactants will emerge. This book takes us farther on the path towards this goal.

This book deals with the new and now-expanding field of friction, wear, and other surface-related mechanical phenomena for polymers. Polymers have been used in various forms such as bulk, films, and composites in applications where their friction, wear resistance, and other surface-related properties have been effectively utilized. There are also many examples in which polymers have performed extremely well, such as in tyres, shoes, brakes, gears, bearings, small moving parts in electronics and MEMS, cosmetics/hair products, and artificial human joints. Around the world, much research is currently being undertaken to develop new polymers, in different forms, for further enhancing tribological performance and for finding novel applications. Keeping in view the importance of tribology of polymers for research and technology as well as the vast literature that is now available in research papers and review articles, this timely book brings together a wealth of research data for an understanding of the basic principles of the subject.

This handbook is a collection of authoritative information in the new and expanding field of polymer tribology. It brings together various research topics in the field of polymer tribology in a single volume, and provides relevant data in polymer tribology for research and industrial applications.The book's chapters are written by active, world-renowned researchers in the field. Subjects covered in this book range from the fundamentals of polymer tribology to highly applied topics such as machine element design (bearing and gears), hip prosthetic and microsystems applications.Readers in the field of tribology, in general, and polymer tribology, in particular, will find it very useful as it covers nearly all aspects of polymer tribology. Academics creating new courses based on polymer tribology will also find this book's comprehensive coverage valuable. Researchers will find this book a ready source of the state-of-the-art in the field of polymer tribology.

The conference provides an international exchange forum for the industry and the academia. Leading university researchers present their latest findings, and representatives of the industry inspire scientists to develop new solutions.

This book brings together recent developments in the areas of MEMS tribology, novel lubricants and coatings for nanotechnological applications, biomimetics in tribology and fundamentals of micro/nano-tribology. Tribology plays important roles in the functioning and durability of machines at small length scales because of the problems associated with strong surface adhesion, friction, wear etc. Recently, a number of studies have been conducted to understand tribological phenomena at nano/micro scales and many new tribological solutions for MEMS have been proposed.