Friction and wear of advanced engineering materials

General description

The tribology group of Laboratory Soete (Ghent University, Belgium) performs experimental and computational R&D and expertise on a variety of tribological phenomena.

The experimental tribology cell is headed by Prof. Patrick De Baets and focuses on the tribological response (friction, friction stability and wear) in dry or marginally lubricated conditions of advanced materials. The laboratory has designed and constructed different experimental tribological set-ups, ranging from the N to MN force range, and including advanced wear monitoring technology.

The computational tribology cell is headed by Prof. Dieter Fauconnier and focusses on multi-scale and multi-physics modelling and simulation of fluid- and particle-related tribological issues. Both lubrication modelling (e.g. elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication, smart fluids) and erosion-abrasion modelling (e.g. cavitation, droplet and solid-particle erosion) is performed. The research relies on High-Performance Computing and multiple simulation techniques are applied or coupled, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics, particle-based methods such as Discrete-Element Methods and Molecular Dynamics, and Numerical Optimization tools.

Both experimental and computational expertise on tribological phenomena are available for your project.

case studies

• detailed profilometry
• large scale bearing test
• Dynamische architectuur smeert zonder olie _{[Bron: Luc De Smet, Engineeringnet Magazine, januari 2019]}