Credits: 3 (3-0-0)
Description
Topics will include surface force and adhesion models for soft and hard solids; friction laws for nano, micro and macro contacts; atomic-scale stick-slip phenomenon; the roles of surface energy and surface forces on friction and wear; molecular structure effects on friction; nano- lubrication and design of nano-lubricants (self-assembled monolayers, ultra-thin films of functionalized polymers); nano-texturing and surface roughness effects; surface chemisorptions and physisorption effects; friction-induced effects such as wear, molecular alignments, tribo-charging, surface oxidation, third-body generation etc. The above principles would be applied to modern technologies such as data storage (head-disk interface) tribology, various micromachines such as micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) tribology and nature’s solutions to tribological problems through a few case studies.