Ricerc@Sapienza

Interfaces play a key role in the overall response of a system. Whenever contacts make part of a physical system, most of the transfer and loss of energy occurs through and within interfaces. The local energy dissipation brings to loss of efficiency, energy consumption, material damaging and wear. The consequences are uncountable, with enormous economic and social impacts: consumption and pollution, components wear and replacement, catastrophic failures of components, airborne particle emissions, transformation of material properties in surface, ... In a recent Resolution (2016), the US Congress encouraged the founding agencies to invest in tribology and related fundamental issues, because of the enormous advantages that improvements in this discipline can lead to economy, health and society.

In this context, this project aims to the acquisition of a Multifunctional Tribometer, able to reproduce and measure contact interfaces under several boundary conditions. This equipment is of fundamental interest for several lines of research: mechanical and biomechanical engineers will have a powerful tool for characterizing and improving systems, by lowering the overall energy consumption and wear, aiming to an improvement of the sustainability and health compatibility of future technologies; material scientists can investigate the evolution of surfaces under tribological solicitation, to develop new materials and coatings for low wear and damaging; physicists can profit of the instrumentation to improve the reliability in physical tests and investigate the behaviour of matter at the interface; in geophysics, contact laws between rocks can be determined for simulating faults and earthquakes; biomedical engineers will profit for characterizing and improving prostheses and medical devices; ...

In line with the recent developments in tribology and contact mechanics, the acquisition of this instrumentation will project La Sapienza towards an excellence in the field.