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

工程研究中心规划拨款竞赛是ERC项目的试点征集。规划补助金不需要作为ERC竞赛的一部分，但它旨在在团队之间建立能力，以规划聚合的、中心规模的工程研究。汽车每年消耗约19%的世界能源，产生约23%的温室气体排放。超过30%的能源消耗来自于克服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导致的更严重的磨损。由于缺乏摩擦学（研究摩擦、润滑和磨损）方面的基础知识，这些新技术的发展受到阻碍。与此相关的是，工业中缺乏旨在减少摩擦和磨损的先进材料、组件和设计方法。此外，由于缺乏教育和培训，美国的摩擦学工作人员正在老龄化和减少。这项计划拨款将把各种各样的创新者聚集在一起，以确定最有前途的技术，装备最好的团队，以及最容易接受的行业和机构合作伙伴，形成Tribo-CREST：摩擦学ERC，创造可靠，高效，可持续的交通。Tribo-CREST将致力于提高车辆技术的效率、可靠性和可持续性，主要关注发动机和传动系统。该计划资助的ERC将致力于产生新的知识、方法和设施；变革性商业影响；以及一支充满活力、多样化的摩擦学团队。摩擦学是一个高度融合的研究领域。物理、化学、固体力学、表面科学、流体力学、热学和材料科学等相关的现象都存在于两个滑动表面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深度整合知识，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不同团队。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，这些合作伙伴将为汽车发动机和传动系统技术的前沿研究和教育提出ERC提案。这包括研究具有工程表面的先进材料，其性能不仅取决于强度，还取决于弱点：最近的工作表明，最好的工程摩擦学系统可以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。计划资助小组将整合来自学术界、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。该团队将评估ERC如何通过利用主要机构的多样化人口和成功的多元化项目，在妇女、少数民族、退伍军人和第一代低收入学生（FGLIs）的参与方面超过全国平均水平：加州大学默塞德分校（53%的西班牙裔学生）；德州农工大学（西班牙裔博士学位全国排名第十，退伍军人教育排名第一）；佛罗里达大学（西班牙裔和非裔美国人的学士和博士学位排名前十）；宾夕法尼亚大学（一所私立大学，其工程学院近年来大大增加了其FGLI人数）。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.