Tribology, the science of friction and wear between solids in contact, requires a multiscale modelling approach. On the one hand, friction and wear are systemic properties, i.e. not attached to a material but to a system. A tribosystem consists in a pair of solid bodies (their nature, manufacturing and surface finishing, shape...), the contact conditions (kinematics, loadings) and, critically, lubrication.
On the other hand, surfaces are rough and this plays a major role through loading at asperity level and real area of contact. Tribology thus requires modelling at the macroscale – system scale – and at a microscale – typically the roughness scale, possibly going down to the atomic scale for the understanding of the fundamental interactions.
Manufacturing has a double interaction with tribology. Friction does govern a number of features of manufacturing processes: global forces and torques, machine power and strength requirement, material flow, tool deformation and machine vibrations (chatter) which impact product dimensions and quality, tool wear and surface quality of products... Reciprocally, manufacturing processes impart products with surface features (topography, composition, superficial properties, residual stresses...) which control their functionality.
Tribology in manufacturing is therefore a key engineering science subject. Chemistry is important for tribology (materials nature and properties, microstructural features, choice of lubricants); however tribology is strongly anchored in mechanics and generally taught in a Mechanical Engineering curriculum.
Numerical modelling has become a key tool in this field. Transmission of this know-how will be an integral part of the course:
- macroscopic process modelling discloses the working conditions of the interface;
- microscale numerical modelling gives precise, physics-based homogenized friction or wear models;
- FE2 approaches of mixed regime lubrication address multiple micromechanisms of lubrication.
These trends will be illustrated and their potential discussed in view of scientific knowledge as well as for practical application.
Through a multidisciplinary approach combining theory and practice, this course intends to provide its audience, academic researchers as well as R&D engineers from industry, with both the well-established bases of this particular field and advanced models and operational concepts illustrated by examples of recent and on-going research, including on how tribology may contribute to greener manufacturing.
The course is addressed, through its mixture of basic and advanced notions, to:
- MSc or doctoral students who can learn approaches useful for their thesis;
- young researchers completing their specialization in tribology of manufacturing;
- more experienced researchers in mechanical engineering or tribology who desire to enter this specific field;
- engineers from industry who want to add to their practical know-how an in-depth understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
In a poster session at the end of the first day, the attendants will be given an opportunity to present one of their research subjects through a brief pitch and a poster, to be discussed with other participants and with the experts.
An attestation describing the content will be provided to students on demand in view of ECTS accountance, to be determined with their administration.