Engine tribology: minimizing friction in lightweight combustion engines

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Tribology is central to future developments in transport and energy efficient systems. The reduction in fuel consumption and control of emissions and in modern combustion engine components made of lightweight alloys require fundamental understanding of tribological processes at all scales. The proposed program will identify the micromechanisms associated with lightweight internal combustion engines, with an emphasis on determining the causes of friction losses and will advance a methodology to increase engine efficiency by minimizing these losses in critical components including pumps or rockers or cams etc. The research will encompass the following areas; i) the development of new testing methods to simulate wear and friction mechanisms that occur in internal combustion engines; ii) the delineation of wear, adhesion and friction micromechanisms from microstructural and atomistic points of view; iii) the design of interfaces that reduce friction in powertrain components based on the results of experimental and computational work. It is expected that the research will result in optimization of engineered coatings, including the thermal spray coatings and carbon based coatings that will reduce internal friction during ring/bore contact as well as in crank- and valve- train components under transient lubrication and steady state conditions. By predicting the properties of suitable coatings, and modeling their overall wear behaviour processing methods to create robust surfaces will be developed. The program will contribute training of two PhD students and one PDF per year.