The future of engineering tribology in concentrated contacts

Abstract

This article attempts to anticipate likely trends and developments in the field of engineering tribology. It is, of course, a personal view and the authors have chosen to focus on the field of concentrated contacts operating in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL), where they are tempted to make the kind of predictions required with at least a modicum of confidence. The main thrust of the argument presented is that engineering tribology will develop considerably, and move towards modelling failure of the EHL mechanism rather than simply explaining its successful operation.

Surface damage prediction during an FZG gear micropitting test

“…In the case of the mesoscopic stresses, the maximum shear stress spikes toward 0 when the pressure spikes. This is relevant to the application of equation (1).…”

“…3 Olver 4 comments on the competition between micropitting and wear: mild wear tends to suppress micropitting. In fact, Torrance et al 5 and later 1 Laine´et al 6 demonstrated that anti-wear additives ease micropitting by impeding mild wear. The relationship between wear and micropitting can be observed in the present work as well.…”

“…This work is concerned with micropitting, a type of damage caused by surface rolling contact fatigue. Evans and Snidle 1 have reported that micropitting is becoming a serious endemic problem in wind power generation sets. This is significant, in view of mounting global environmental concerns.…”