Tribology of advanced materials and processes

材料磨损是一个重大的工业问题；加拿大国家研究委员会最近的一份报告估计，加拿大工业每年的磨损成本约为100亿美元。这强调了在经济上和技术上可行的材料研究计划在材料摩擦和磨损方面的必要性。对于美国、日本和欧洲的工程师来说，这一研究领域的重要性已经变得显而易见，因为许多大型研究和开发计划现在都很活跃。不幸的是，类似项目在加拿大的发生率低得不成比例。申请者建议在一些关键领域进行研究，这些领域对加强我们对先进材料和工艺的磨损和摩擦的了解至关重要。拟议的研究计划将对汽车、航空航天和制造业具有重要价值。其一是耐磨块体超弹性TiNi的加工性低的问题。为了获得更好的可加工性，申请人提议合成新一代耐磨微层状超弹性Ti/TiNi/Ni复合材料。由于纯Ni和Ti层的存在，预计这将改善块状TiNi的加工性。在另一个分支中，将使用原子力显微镜来研究摩擦的起源。在微观尺度上，固体在相对运动过程中的相互作用对于理解摩擦现象具有重要意义。详细研究了表面粗糙度对超低载荷下所测摩擦力的贡献，以及粗糙度高度和坡度对摩擦力的影响。最后，对立方氮化硼在精密硬态车削中的磨损监测进行了研究。刀具磨损是造成加工零件几何误差的主要因素之一。在这方面，申请人打算确定刀具磨损、切削力、刀具几何形状和加工条件之间的关系，以便优化PFHT操作，以获得高质量的表面光洁度和精度。最终，基于收集的经验数据，开发一种实时监测策略来预测刀具寿命是有希望的。这样的战略预计将带来重大的成本节约。

Wear of materials is a significant industrial problem; a recent National Research Council of Canada report estimated that the cost of wear to Canadian Industry is approximately 10 billion dollars annually. This stresses the need to develop economically and technologically viable materials research programs in friction and wear of materials. The importance of this research field has become obvious to engineers in the U.S.A., Japan and Europe as many large research and development initiatives are now active. Unfortunately, the occurrence of similar programs in Canada is disproportionately low. The applicant proposes to conduct research in a number of key areas that are pivotal to enhancing our understanding of wear and friction of advanced materials and processes. The proposed research program will be of significant value to the automotive, aerospace and manufacturing industries. One pertains to the problem of low workability of wear resistance bulk superelastic TiNi. To achieve better workability the applicant proposes to synthesize a new generation of wear resistant micro-laminated superelastic Ti/TiNi/Ni composites. This is expected to have improved workability over bulk TiNi due to the presence of pure Ni and Ti layers. In another branch, the origin of friction will be studied using atomic force microscopy. The interactions of solids in contact during relative motion, at the microscale are of great importance to the understanding of friction phenomena. The contribution of surface roughness to the measured friction force at ultra-low loads and the effect of asperity height and slope on friction will be examined in details. Finally, wear monitoring of cubic boron nitride in precision finish hard turning (PFHT) will be pursued. Tool wear is one of the major factors contributing to geometrical error in machined components. In this area, the applicant intends to determine the relationships between tool wear, cutting forces, tool geometry and machining conditions in order to optimize PFHT operation for workpiece high quality surface finish and accuracy. Ultimately, it is hopped that a real-time monitoring strategy, based on the empirical data collected, will be developed to predict tool life. Such a strategy is expected to lead to major cost savings.