Projects / Programmes
January 1, 2022
- December 31, 2027
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 2.11.00 |
Engineering sciences and technologies |
Mechanical design |
|
| 2.04.00 |
Engineering sciences and technologies |
Materials science and technology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 2.03 |
Engineering and Technology |
Mechanical engineering |
| 2.05 |
Engineering and Technology |
Materials engineering |
Tribology, friction, wear, lubrication, nanotribology, nanotechnology, surface engineering, coating, DLC, polymer, nanoparticle, contact, surface, interface, boundary film, wetting, lubricant, oil, EHD, additive, tribochemistry, green lubrication, hydraulics, technical diagnostics, machine design
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
April 18, 2024;
A3 for period
2018-2022
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
248 |
6,147 |
5,268 |
21.24 |
| Scopus |
281 |
7,197 |
6,216 |
22.12 |
Researchers (21)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The Programme group Tribology is dedicated to continuously improve scientific excellence, to further grow internationally, increasing the core competences of permanent research staff, working even more closely with industry, and strongly focus the research for the needs and for impact to the society: economic, environmental and societal. Since its establishing, the Programme group Tribology was always evaluated with the highest scores, and by continuously improving its performance, reached even top 2.3 % ranking of all programme groups in Slovenia in the last comprehensive evaluation, with all possible best scores (only 7 groups of 299). This gives us good grounds and confidence to achieve the ambitious goals also in the future. The group is striving to develop sustainable, energy-efficient, durable and high-tech innovative contacts for mechanical components that are at the same time "green" and can operate with high performance under ever-more demanding conditions. To achieve these goals we will work at four closely-related areas, which range from topmost scientific detail at the atomistic and molecular scale, to macro-scale engineering components design and performance, and further to diagnose and predict operation of industrial systems, preventing failures, and achieve reliability and long life. The group will continue to work in the same activity areas, but clearly setting some new research directions, heading toward more profound understanding of the interface phenomena and so increasing the ability to tailor tribological contacts for required performance in industrial applications. A team of technical staff, young and interdisciplinary PhD students, post-doc researchers, and three professors, two of them being juniors, is enthusiastically taking the research activities at high pace. Linking nanoscale understanding and targeting the industrial problems with a green transformation, and economic and societal impact in mind, became the paramount goal and guidance of the current Program group team. While we are clearly recognised as pioneers and policy making group in some areas, we will continue to learn from the best in other areas, and upgrade the science and technology beyond current state of the art. The most prosperous research topics in the next period will be: boundary interface design, nano-mechano-chemistry, green lubrication technologies (nanoparticles, quantum dots, sub-nm adsorption mechanisms, organic additives), innovative surface engineering, modelling real contact area at sub-micron precision, water-hydraulic, preventing failures and increasing machinery life time to achieve maximum environmental and economic impacts. Collaboration with industry, professional volunteering, and internationally-oriented education with our leadership in European joint programmes, which all bring important societal effects, will remain our priority.
Significance for science
o The study of surface-liquid interactions in full-film regime will extend our current research and improve existing correlation model to universal surface-liquid and adsorption interaction model, which will cover a whole range of contact conditions and enable to design an optimal surface-liquid interface for required contact condition in certain application. o Continuing with investigation on adsorption mechanisms of more advanced, but green, additives onto engineered surfaces, we will use our unique dedicated tribotester that we will implement directly into the neutron beam facility for the in-situ sub-nanoscale resolution adsorption investigation under simultaneous tribological conditions. This will provide us with new findings on growth kinetics of the more advanced boundary films and their physical properties i.e. density, thickness. o We will exploit the novel nano-mechano-chemistry concept of boundary films to correlate their nanoscale physical properties with the nano-mechano-chemical response and their friction performance in the macroscale. In this way we will validate the novel advanced green lubrication technology with analyses on very different scales and establish a relation from nano scale, to the macro scale. o Among some other novel green lubrication strategies we will also use and further improve technology of the most prosperous nanoparticles as lubricating agents in oils. The research in this field represents the bridging between the nanotechnology and nanotribology to macroscopic solutions in mechanical engineering. o We will focus on advanced surface coatings for applications in harsh environments. These represent high added value products and provide solutions for less wear, less maintenance and lower energy consumption, which contributes to global sustainable living. We will study the unrevealed mechanisms of friction, adhesion, wear and formation of the transfer boundary films, which remain a global scientific and technological problem. o The real contact area studies will provide reliable high-resolution evidence on real contact area depending on relevant surface properties, which will enable us to develop the advanced and accurate model of outmost importance. Moreover, success in advancing these findings also to sliding contacts would be a paramount achievement in contact design and tribology. o In power hydraulic studies we will continue improving water hydraulic components and in this way setting the trends of modern science towards environmentally-friendly technology. Moroever, advancing the long-time lacking understanding and existence of a model that correlate oil cleanliness levels to the life-time prediction of the components, will be another notable scientific and technological breakthrough. o Finally, we will be striving to bridge the gap in understanding of the surface science, tribological mechanisms and origins of failures that we possess in the laboratory scale, to the industry level, where this knowledge is still greatly lacking today.
Significance for the country
o Almost 25 % of all energy produced globally is used to overcome friction. Our programme activity goals target to reduce friction in every aspect, which clearly has a potential for large economic impact. o Most of mechanical systems are lubricated, and 80 % of these are (E)HD contacts where we plan to develop a new model for surface engineering and additive technology with important friction reduction. o Moreover, 1-5 % of each country GDP is lost due to cost related to tribology. Our activities will reduce wear, maintenance and machinery down-time, and increase life-time of components, so impact economy. o Our work is aligned to Kyoto protocol, Paris declaration and EC environmental emission legislation and affects all industrial sectors. It is obvious that pollution with greenhouse emissions and hazardous materials has tremendous effect on global warming, climate changes, health and thus all societal systems. o Friction reduction significantly improves the fuel-efficiency, and contributes to oil-reserve conservation. Moreover, with this, it also reduces CO2 emissions. o By research and development of advanced low-friction and wear-protective surfaces, the usage of typically used steel and cast iron, which are metals with limited resources, will be reduced and therefore a raw material conservation contribution will be made. o All new systems currently under development and research will bring significant innovations in various fields having immense potential on markets and applications. This will have a significant impact on the competitive advantage of the collaborating industrial partners and societal impact in Slovenia. o As evident, the plan of the Programme group is broad in terms of societal, environmental and economic impacts. The most important socio-economic benefits could be summarized as: a) reduction of energy losses and pollution; b) reducing wear and thus raw materials and other resources; c) increased reliability, quality and durability of mechanical systems; d) increased productivity e) long term competitiveness and growth, employment stability f) reduced maintenance and increased machinery life-cycles g) reduced overall lifecycle emissions h) high-quality products and novel enabling technologies, i) customer satisfaction.
