Multifunctional Materials for Tribological Applications

As designs of machine components require cheaper, lighter, smarter, longer-lasting, and more environmentally friendly surfaces that see applications that are hotter, faster, highly pressurized, and exposed to other increasingly hostile environments, there is a need for engineering surfaces to be multifunctional. This multifunctionality can be achieved by the use of modern advanced materials and coatings. This is a challenging area because usually there is antagonism between obtaining low friction and low wear as well as between high corrosion resistance and low wear.

This book focuses on the increasingly important need for engineering surfaces to be multifunctional, with a focus on tribological applications. It presents the state of the art and covers a range of multifunctional coatings and materials that relate to a very wide range of engineering applications.

Robert J. K. Wood is professor of surface engineering and tribology in Engineering Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, at the University of Southampton, UK. He has 25 years’ research experience in the field of tribology and surface engineering. He spent several years at BP Research studying erosion- and corrosion-resistant coatings and returned to Southampton in 1993 to re-establish surface engineering/tribology research. Prof. Wood has research interests in rain, cavitation, solid particle erosion, and erosion–corrosion interactions and modeling; tribological and multifunctional coating design and performance and biomimetic coatings for anti-fouling; electrochemical control of interfacial friction; and particle modeling in pipe bends by swirl dispersion of particles. He has been involved in working on the erosion of helicopter blades, nuclear slurry handling systems at Sellafield, reverse-thrust actuators on aero engines, and polymer coatings for potable water systems as well as offshore choke valves. He has teaching experience in surface engineering, tribological engineering, and fluid mechanics at undergraduate and master’s level.