| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/K33330/01 |
| Title: |
SPM CHARACTERISATION OF THE NANOMETERLEVEL STRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SURFACE FOR TRIBOLOGY |
| Principal Investigator: |
Page, Professor T |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Mech Materials & Manuf Engineering |
| Organisation: |
Newcastle University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 May 1995 |
Ends: |
31 August 1998 |
Value (£): |
244,827
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Characterisation |
Surfaces & Interfaces |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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It is increasingly recognised that the tribological response of materials (eg friction and wear) and their progressive degradation by contact (eg by contact fatigue) are controlled by mechanical processes operating well below the micron-scale (eg detailed line-scale topography, chemomechanical effects, the fate of plastically-displaced material, surface crack nucleation etc). Such phenomena are beyond the resolution of SEM techniques and by their surface location, difficult to study by TEM methods, equally over any significant spatial area. Recently, SPM techniques have developed to the extent of allowing detailed investigations (at, and below, the nanometer level) of the surface topography and mechanical properties of solid surfaces. It is proposed to use AFM techniques to examine the tribological response of the surfaces of engineering ceramics, wear resistant ceramic coatings (eg TiN, TiN-Ti multilayers, diamond, a:C-H) and high strength gear steels. With an instrument allowing previously located damage sites to be precisely addressed, topographic studies will be used to characterise undamaged surfaces and then explore the surface profiles changes associated with hardness indentations, nanoindentations, wear scars, nano-scratch etc. Detailed surface shapes, plastic pile-up, sink-in and crack initiation will all be characterised and the data used to both further our indentations of basic ultra-fine-scale deformation mechanics and as a basis for behavioural modelling. Tapping mode techniques will be used to explore the extent and behaviour of absorbate layers believed to control friction while spectroscopy techniques will be applied to the estimation of elastic moduli and hardness parameters on a point-to-point basis around damage sites and across different phase regions. Lateral force microscopy will be examined to see if adhesive friction force origins can be characterised in this way. In addition, topography imaging will be used to study the early stages of phase changes and chemical reactions on surfaces during ceramic processing and in-service wear. A parallel objective will be to ascertain the types of useful information concerning the surface structure and mechanics of ceramic materials (etc) currently accessible by SPM techniques, and how this relates to information gained by other techniques (eg SEM, indentation testing, x-ray stress analysis etc).
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.ncl.ac.uk |