Testing of full scale composite journal bearings for offshore underwater applications

In the offshore industry, fibre reinforced sliding journal bearings are increasingly used due to their low-maintenance and self-lubricating characteristics. To be able to use the bearings in the rough offshore environment, under heavy loading, full scale tests are essential to assess the friction and wear rate development during use. For this...

Leading edge erosion of coated wind turbine blades: Review of coating life models

Erosion of the leading edge of wind turbine blades by droplet impingement wear, reduces blade aerodynamic efficiency and power output. Eventually, it compromises the integrity of blade surfaces. Elastomeric coatings are currently used for erosion resistance, yet the life of such coatings cannot be predicted accurately. This review paper gives an...

On the probability of skin damage due to frictional heating in real asperity contacts

Pre-sliding behaviour of single asperity contact

The pre-sliding and static friction force behaviour at asperity level between a smooth ball and a smooth flat surface at different normal loads, as well as friction behaviour during full slip has been studied. The normal load dependence of the friction force and the preliminary displacement is discussed when the mean contact pressure is kept...

Grease-lubricated reciprocated sliding of a ZrO2-Al2O3couple in high vacuum

Determination of adhesion forces between smooth and structured solids

Surfaces tend to be made smoother in order to gain flatness or in order to fulfill the need for more precise and reproducible positioning of parts. Adhesion or even sticking of the surfaces is a major showstopper for these applications. There are several measures that can be taken in order to reduce spontaneous adhesion. Quantification of the...

Adhesion experiments using an AFM-Parameters of influence

Adhesion measurements were performed by AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy). It was shown that many parameters need to be controlled in order to provide reproducible and quantitative results. Adhesion forces were shown to depend on combination of materials characteristics and testing geometry as well as experimental protocol (contact time, contact...

Theoretical investigation of van der Waals forces between solid surfaces at nanoscales

A theoretical investigation of van der Waals forces acting between two solid silicon surfaces at separations from zero to approximately 20 nm is presented. We focused our efforts on the analysis of different factors that can cause deviations from the classical pressure-distance dependence p ∼ 1/D3. It is demonstrated that a layer (oxide or water...