Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Tribology to Create Reliable, Efficient, Sustainable Transportation

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。ERC竞赛不要求提供规划赠款，但旨在培养团队的能力，以规划集中的中心规模工程研究。车辆每年消耗约19%的世界能源，产生约23%的温室气体排放。超过30%的能量消耗来自于简单地克服由于摩擦和磨损造成的损失。此外，许多新的节能技术受到与摩擦和磨损有关的问题的阻碍。例如，低粘度润滑剂可以大大减少发动机和传动系统中的能量损失，但仍然没有解决方案来防止使用低粘度润滑剂时产生的更严重的磨损。这些新技术受到摩擦学基础知识（摩擦、润滑和磨损的研究）缺乏的阻碍。与此相关，工业中缺乏旨在减少摩擦和磨损的先进材料、部件和设计方法。此外，由于缺乏教育和培训，美国的摩擦学劳动力正在老化和减少。这项计划拨款将汇集各种创新者，以确定最有前途的技术，最好的装备团队，以及最受欢迎的行业和机构合作伙伴，以形成Tribo-CREST：摩擦学ERC，以创造可靠，高效，可持续的交通。Tribo-CREST将致力于改变车辆技术的效率、可靠性和可持续性，主要关注发动机和传动系统。ERC的这项规划拨款将致力于产生新的知识，方法和设施;变革性的商业影响;和一个充满活力的，多样化的，摩擦学的劳动力。摩擦学是一个高度融合的研究领域。与物理学、化学、固体力学、表面科学、流体力学、热科学和材料科学相关的现象都存在于两个滑动表面之间的接触处并相互作用。摩擦学家必须理解和预测这些复杂的现象，这些现象发生在一个隐藏的动态界面上。因此，摩擦学解决方案需要在多个领域的交叉点，新的和创新的实验和模拟工具，以及能够组装所需的多方面观点的多样化团队的知识的深度整合。虽然这带来了巨大的挑战，但它也说明了以摩擦学为重点的ERC的机会规模。为了实现这一目标，提案团队将确定方法，设施，人员和行业，其合作伙伴关系将导致ERC提出关于车辆发动机和传动系统技术的尖端研究和教育。这涉及研究具有工程表面的先进材料，其性能不仅取决于强度，而且取决于弱点：最近的工作表明，最好的工程摩擦系统通过动态形成和再生软界面膜来实现轻松滑动，同时保持低磨损。规划补助金团队将整合来自学术界、工业界、研究机构、国家实验室、工业联盟和专业协会的30-40名专家的意见，他们将帮助制定一个有远见的ERC的基础。该小组将评估如何ERC可以超过全国平均水平的妇女，少数民族，退伍军人和第一代低收入学生（FGLIs）的参与，通过利用不同的人口和领先机构的成功多样性计划：默塞德（53%的西班牙裔学生）;得克萨斯A M U。(10th在西班牙裔博士和退伍军人排名第一的学校）;佛罗里达（西班牙裔和非洲裔美国人学士和博士学位排名前十）;宾夕法尼亚大学（一所私立大学，实行按需招生，其工程学院近年来大幅增加了FGLI学生人数）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.Vehicles consume approximately 19% of the world's energy and produce approximately 23% of total greenhouse gas emissions each year. Over 30% of this energy consumption originates from simply overcoming losses due to friction and wear. Further, many new energy-efficient technologies are obstructed by issues related to friction and wear. For example, low viscosity lubricants can greatly reduce energy losses in engines and drivetrains, but there is still no solution to prevent the harsher wear that results when lower viscosity lubricants are used. Such new technologies are impeded by the lack of fundamental knowledge in tribology - the study of friction, lubrication, and wear. Related to this, there is a lack of advanced materials, components, and design approaches in industry that are aimed at reducing friction and wear. Moreover, the tribology workforce in the U.S. is ageing and dwindling due to a lack of education and training efforts. This planning grant will bring together a diverse set of innovators to identify the most promising technologies, the best-equipped team, and the most receptive industry and institute partners to form Tribo-CREST: the ERC for Tribology to Create Reliable, Efficient, Sustainable Transportation. Tribo-CREST will aim to transform the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of vehicle technologies with a primary focus on engines and drivetrains. The ERC this planning grant will be working towards will aim to produce new knowledge, methods, and facilities; transformative commercial impact; and a reinvigorated, diverse, tribology workforce.Tribology is a highly convergent research domain. Phenomena related to physics, chemistry, solid mechanics, surface science, fluid mechanics, thermal science, and materials science all exist and interact at the contact between two sliding surfaces. Tribologists must understand and predict these complex phenomena, which occur at a dynamic interface hidden from view. Thus, tribology solutions require the deep integration of knowledge at the intersections of multiple domains, new and innovative experimental and simulation tools, and diverse teams who can assemble the multi-faceted perspectives needed. While this poses tremendous challenges, it also illustrates the scale of the opportunity for a tribology-focused ERC. To accomplish this, the proposing team will identify methods, facilities, people, and industries whose partnership will result in an ERC proposal for cutting-edge research and education on vehicle engine and drivetrain technology. This involves studying advanced materials with engineered surfaces where performance hinges not only on strength, but on weakness: recent work has shown that the best engineered tribological systems achieve easy sliding while maintaining low wear through dynamic formation and regeneration of soft interfacial films. The planning grant team will integrate the input of 30-40 experts from academia, industry, research institutes, national laboratories, industry consortia, and professional societies, who will help formulate the basis for a visionary ERC. The team will assess how the ERC can exceed national averages for participation of women, minorities, Veterans, and first-generation low income students (FGLIs) by leveraging the diverse populations and successful diversity programs of the lead institutions: U.C.-Merced (53% Hispanic students); Texas A&M U. (10th nationwide in Hispanic PhDs and a top-ranked school for Veterans); U. Florida (in the top 10 for Hispanic and African American bachelor's and doctoral degrees); and U. Pennsylvania (a private university with need-blind admission whose engineering school has increased its FGLI population substantially in recent years).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.