Tribology and Aluminium Matrix Composites

Abstract

Knowledge of tribology is very old but much attention has been paid only in the 20th century. It is science and technology of interacting surfaces in sliding, rolling, or any other kind of motion. Tribology includes knowledge of wear, friction, and lubrication, which is of much importance in designing of machine components. This chapter deals with an overview of friction, sliding friction, and contributing factors such as adhesion, ploughing, deformation, third body, time dependence, and mechanisms of friction in metallic materials. It also provides an overview of adhesive and abrasive wear and wear mechanism in mild and severe wear regime for metallic materials. Important material properties, environmental effects, and operating parameters have also been highlighted. In the last section, the importance of Particle Aluminium Matrix Composites (PAMCs) with soft and hard dispersion is explained with the help of operative wear mechanisms.