Tribology

Hello Guest,

Nothing to do with this subject at all, just a mis-spelled caption:

Fossil Tribolite found in the Middle Miocene Coal.

Your proposed subject Tribology, could prove rather interesting, and is worthy of extensive carefully considered research.

Go for it.

Kind Regards....

Thats no lie, My Dad is a self taught Tribologest. Worked for a major lubrication co.

A lot of mathematical modeling? no but some math many don't get lots of exposure to.

Not only do you have to understand how lubricants are made but how they actually work and what environments they excel or fail in.

Things like cost analysis: Good oil high price vs. moderate oil cheap price, but more oil changes to keep parts wear equal.

Personally I would combine it with another field to augment it. Just my opinion but what he hasn't taught me already I can go "hey Dad"

2bits from

Brad

Tribology is not just the study of friction surfaces and thin film oil lubrication.

Hydraulics and Fluid Power generally come under the same title and there is plenty of maths that could apply here!

While you are studying, your mentors will do ANYTHING to wedge in the maths. It's just not a chatty subject!

Good luck with it, you would never be out of work afterwards!

Do I detect a smidgen of reluctance towards mathematics? If so, perhaps the first question should be ...... is engineering the right career choice??

In jest, as always TC

""

Do I detect a smidgen of reluctance towards mathematics? If so, perhaps the first question should be ...... is engineering the right career choice??

In jest, as always TC

""

The reason I asked is cause I love mathematics...

That is very good.

Without the Mathematics you are only a driver.

With the Mathematics in your brain-you do the successful redesigning of multi-fuel racing car -complete !

A very readable- yet analytical-full of mathematical modelling at all steps - was available in 3 volumes:

Trenye,Iznashivanye e Smazka:

FRICTION,WEAR,LUBRICATION

Editor --Prof.I.V. Kragelsky-- Mashinostroyenye Moscow 1978

also in English translation-- Mir Publishers 1981

mm

Would you be looking at a study to reduce the tribologic charge to reduce static buildup? That is a big thorn in the sides of electronic device manufacture and repair of devices containing ESD sensitive components. God, I sure hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to make sense here.

I'd rather use the study of tribology to increase the static build up. Makes for a much better Van de Graaff generator.

Tribology is really an interdisciplinary field. You may consider tackling aspects of biotribology, why geckos may adhere so well at surfaces, etc. Understanding tribological aspects at the atomic level (i.e. nanotribology) looks quite interesting to me. I would say "a little knowledge" of tribology is indeed "a necessary subject" for a mechanical engineer, and tribology is "not necessarily" a subject for a "mechanical engineer", but a mechanical engineering background and an open mentality and greed to learn various disciplines would suit quiet well.

The study of tribology not only deals with the fundamentals of fluids, but their interaction with the surfaces they are used to protect and the impact of the surface asperities and boundary thicknesses on lubrication. Surface hardness, deformation of the surface under load and many other parameters impact lubrication and tribology. It is a fascinating subject. One quote keeps coming to mind: "Frction is the source of all pleasure".

Hello aqua doc,

"One quote keeps coming to mind: "Frction is the source of all pleasure""

I have carefully researched all known quotation on-line sources, and have not been able to locate your quotation as above.

If you are able to advise the original writer and further description of your quotation, I shall then be able to look it up in the original context, thus gaining further education and understanding of the more philosophical quotation you wrote.

I had not come across the word "Frction" before, although Mr Google's fine Search Engine says: Results 1 - 10 of about 4,860 for Frction.

I would be grateful if you could clarify the present abstrusiveness contained in your reply above, which is presently as a conundrum before me.

Kind Regards....

The answer is yes if you want to go deep into the science of interaction of different bodies you are obliged to use a very complex and high level mathematical tool.

Tribology is a field of high future for different reasons:

- wear is the 1st reason for life limit of moving components

- friction is the most important user of energy which is transformed in heath i.e. a low level not recoverable.

For the future the world is obliged to reduce energy consumption and to increase life of systems since materials will cost more because of energy cost and limited resources.

To give you an example the elasto-hydrodynamic theory in the lubrication of roller or ball bearings requires as well a deep knowledge of the function viscosity-pressure as the knowledge of local surfaces deformations under load as the fluid movement in narrow curved gaps as thermal transfer and...

Only in this case the mathematical model requires partial differential equations of 2nd degree. Not to speak about the statistical treatment of friction in sliding, effects of heat transfer in limiting speed and so on..

Even the components of a tooth-paste take care of tribology since they have to polish teeth but not wear them.

If you want to study some direction with a real future then go into tribology.

The pleasant aspect is that in this field theories and practice go hand in hand.

Hello nick name,

"- friction is the most important user of energy which is transformed in heath i.e. a low level not recoverable."

I am trying to figure out exactly what Ericoideae, Ericaceae have to do with Tribology, as the connection seems to have escaped me.

Perhaps you could explain for this puzzled reader.

Gracias Muchachos.

Kind regards....

I feel very honored that a GURU can ask for an explanation. But before giving it I personally do not understand the connection between what I wrote and the 2 entries you put in your message. May be you could spend a few minutes to give me the explanation.

Now coming to your question. When 2 bodies slide relatively to each other due to the friction forces a work is done. This mechanical energy is converted in the process in heat. As every body knows heat is a low level energy and is not easily recovered. So that friction losses are real lost. The only effect is to increase the entropy of the system.

It is thus clear that a reduction of friction represents an important economy of energy used in every machine we use for satisfaction of our live needs. Even in the friction which is -according to a comment - positive there is a process leading to friction reduction via lubrication.

I hope I satisfied your demand and please give me the explanation for your comment.

Hello nick name,

I had thought you would click on the two hyperlinks, and discover why I was puzzled.

The plant known by the common name of "Heath" (as the word in your Post) is a Species named "Erica", and sub-species as per those two hyperlinks.

As it is after midnight here, and I'm away for some well-earned rest, perhaps if you click on the hyperlinks and also re-read your Post, you may see the connection.

Perhaps you intended "health", or "Heat", but as I can see you are a person who like to have things correct, I was sure that you just relied on the spell-checker, which does not show words spelled OK, but misused in context.

Of course the CR4 Forum Spell-checker is US Spelling, not the Queen's English, which I use in my Firefox Browser.

Kind Regards....

Thanks, it was an error in writing. Of course it was meant "heat". I appreciate, although I checked the message i did not see the error.

As you know every check corrects only 90...95% of existing errors and such errors are almost not noticed since we usually read what we expect to find and not what is really written. There has been research done and it was demonstrated that words are in reading recognized even if only the start and the end are correct: Our brain compensates for the middle!

Hello again nick name,

Because I'm here to help you, please accept this small .GIF gift

And an interesting short read for you, should you wish:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13418175.600-forum-in-my-beginning-is-my-end--ian-gordon-thinks-that-tounderstand-a-language-we-need-to-consider-all-aspects-of-linguistics-.html

As an aside, we may now be able to establish that the original Guest, who asked the Question, hails from Bonnie Scotland.

That's because he/she used the Scots pronunciation to spell the word: necessairy.

Kind Regards.....