Half a million pounds for new equipment | page 2

Industrial Club collaborations | page 4

Two prestigious prizes for PhD student Martin Evans | page 6

Tribology – the essential science of friction, lubrication and wear – is vital to the smooth running of today’s busy world.

Here at the national Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS), we work alongside professionals in industry in fields as varied as renewable energy, marine biofilms, skincare and functional coatings, see page four. This newsletter also features the latest research by our academics and students and how investment in new equipment is helping us in our work to find solutions for complex problems. As always, we welcome enquiries from anyone interested in learning more about Tribology at Southampton.

Professor Robert Wood, nCATS Director

Edition 8

nCATS Newsletter

Visiting academic

Investment in testing technologies

PhD student Kuan Yong Ching has spent seven weeks at the Biomaterials Engineering Group at the University of Bristol, thanks to a bursary from the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM).

Her research aims to produce durable and biodegradable artificial cartilage material for patients.

Support for cartilage research

Thanks to a successful application to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) strategic equipment programme, nCATS is investing £500,000 in a sophisticated testing system that will enable researchers to carry out a wide range of experiments at both the micro and nanoscale, in a range of different environments, including high temperatures and liquid.

Dr Tomas Polcar and Dr Richard Cook prepared the successful bid and are now drawing up the specifications for the system. Researchers from Engineering and the Environment, Biological Sciences and Medicine at Southampton will be able to use it for work in several important areas including fuel cells, energy systems, corrosion, and bone development. It will also be available for use by colleagues from the universities of Nottingham, Sheffield and Portsmouth.

“This will be a valuable addition to our resources at nCATS”, explains Richard. “We are delighted to receive the EPSRC award and know it will be put to good use.”

Professor Amit Gefen from Tel Aviv University will be collaborating with Dr. Georges Limbert this winter. The Israeli academic is an expert on the mechanobiology of pressure sores and wound healing. The purpose of his visit is to work on the joint development of a multi-physics computational model of skin microclimate.

His visit has been financed by a Royal Academy of Engineering Distinguished Visiting Fellowship.

“We are delighted to receive the EPSRC award and know it will be put to good use.” Dr Richard Cook,Postdoctoral Research Fellow

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New camera aids research

The £7,000 device, which incorporates a camera, is used to measure the strain or impact on a wide range of materials including metals, composites and foam. Air pressure of up to 80 psi is used to fire 9mm ball bearings into them. An accelerometer built into the device measures the wave transmitted through the material and a high speed camera is used to measure the rebound velocity. Fibre optic light gates measure the impact velocity.

It was designed at the University of Southampton by Dr Nicola Symonds and manufactured by Southampton company Safire. The camera is on loan from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Postdoctoral researcher Liam Goodes works with the rig. He says: “It is a valuable addition to the laboratory and is used as part of our work on the major EPSRC and Dstl research award awarded to nCATS. Researchers from other universities have already expressed interest in coming here to use it.”

Tribology at Southampton has taken delivery of a purpose-built high velocity impact rig.

“Researchers from other universities have already expressed interest in coming here to use it.” Liam Goodes,Postdoctoral Researcher

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Making a difference by working with industry. Join the clubSpecialists from nCATS are working with over 100 industrial companies to turn the results of their cutting edge research into practical solutions. Ten cross-sector industrial clubs have been formed, each led by a leading researcher; regular meetings with business leaders establish key areas of investigation, provide updates, hold workshops/seminars and seek projects that are joint industrial collaborations or have geared funding for industrially relevant research.

Director of the Centre, Professor Robert Wood, himself leads one of the clubs. “We see our links with industry as key to the success of our tribology research,” he says. “One club is examining how to develop replacement coatings for the aerospace and other industries that will comply with new European Union REACh legislation. Existing coatings use toxic chemicals such as hexavalent chromium and will be phased out over the next few years. Our other clubs are also examining important engineering issues.”

Southampton’s tribology researchers are working with other world-class scientists and engineers at the University of Southampton to further knowledge. Collaborations are underway with staff at Southampton’s Electronics and Computer Science. Potential projects include the development of environmentally-friendly lubricants, efficient renewable marine energy systems and corrosion reduction.

Multidisciplinary working will bring new perspectives to these challenging issues and provide opportunities for talented postgraduate research students to work together on solutions. nCATS will also be a stronger position to apply for research grants and awards to further its work.

nCATS clubs

– Low friction – Monica Ratoi – m.ratoi@soton.ac.uk

– Corrosion and sensing – Julian Wharton – j.a.wharton@soton.ac.uk

– Transient and low velocity contacts – Ling Wang – ling.wang@soton.ac.uk

– Robust testing – John Walker – j.walker@soton.ac.uk

– Biofilms in oral health – Paul Stoodley – p.stoodley@soton.ac.uk

– Medical devices – Martin Stolz – m.stolz@soton.ac.uk

– Skin tribology – Georges Limbert – g.limbert@soton.ac.uk

– Functional coatings for industry – Tomas Polcar – t.polcar@soton.ac.uk

– Marine energy systems – Robert Wood – r.wood@soton.ac.uk

– Materials characterisation – Shuncai Wang – wangs@soton.ac.uk

Two awards to develop the modelling of skin

Tribology PhD student Mostafa Soleimani has carried the Olympic torch as part of the flame’s epic journey around the UK.

He was nominated for his involvement in sport, while a student at the University of Birmingham. Mostafa carried the torch for more than 300 metres in the Warwickshire town of Rugby, starting at historic Rugby School.

Carrying the flame

Dr Georges Limbert has won a funding award from the European Office of Aerospace Research and Development (EOARD)-Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) to investigate and model how polymers can wrinkle and change their shape and appearance in a similar manner to cephalopods’ skin (eg octopus, cuttlefish). The research is aimed at developing improved camouflage materials.

The principal researcher on the project ‘Tunable shape-shifting structures for military applications’ is Dr Lei Chen who graduated from Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China and obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

Georges has also won an award from the University of Southampton Internationalisation Fund to carry out research at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He has established a collaboration on the multi-scale modelling of skin with Professor Ellen Kuhl who heads the Living Matter Laboratory. This work could have important implications for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

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Future research plans

She will work with Professor Andrew Starr from Cranfield University’s Through-Life Engineering Sciences Centre and nCATS postdoctoral researcher Dr Mengyan Nie on developing through-life maintenance strategies for wind turbine gearboxes and in other common areas of interest.

“Reliability and availability of gearbox bearings are key to the success of energy generation from wind,” she explains. “Much work is already

underway at Southampton but a further grant would allow us to expand our research in this important area.”

Cranfield’s Centre examines the life of complex machines such as aerospace and automotive engines and wind turbines; its areas of expertise complement the tribological focus of nCATS. Ling is also looking for industrial collaborators/sponsors in developing lubrication and material solutions for reliable wind turbine gearboxes.

Dr Ling Wang has secured £25,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for a feasible study (EP/1033246/1) that could lead to a major grant to investigate the premature failure of wind turbine gearbox bearings.

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Tribology PhD student Martin Evans has been awarded both the Tribology Trust Bronze Medal and the Dowson Prize this autumn.

Prestigious prizes mark significant research

The Tribology Trust awards the Tribology Bronze Medal to an engineer or scientist less than 30 years of age studying in the fields of friction, lubrication and wear, on the recommendation of the IMechE. Martin won the Medal for his extensive involvement in a range of tribology activities and technical contributions in the field of rolling contact fatigue to understanding ‘white structure flaking’ as a premature bearing failure mode in wind turbine gearboxes. He will receive his award in March at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London by the President of the Institution.

“I feel very privileged to have been acknowledged in the field of Tribology by receiving this prestigious award from the IMechE. I would like to sincerely thank all those who have worked alongside me and given support over the last 3 years; this would not have been possible without you.”

Martin has also won the prestigious Dowson Prize for an academic journal paper

and presentation about his research into improving bearings used in wind turbine gearboxes.

His journal paper, submitted to Tribology International was entitled: ‘Investigation of butterfly and white etching crack (WEC) formation under rolling contact fatigue in 100Cr6 bearing steel for wind turbine gearbox bearing applications using metallographic and focused ion beam tomography’.

Martin received £1,000 sponsored by Shell and a signed copy of the book History of Tribology by Professor Duncan Dowson at the 39th Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology, held in the Yorkshire city in September 2012.

The conference attracted speakers from 22 countries. “It was a valuable networking opportunity, as I was able to meet two other groups that were unknown to me who are working in the same field,” explains Martin.

Sanjay Pant, who was supervised by Dr Neil Bressloff and co-supervised by Dr Georges Limbert has successfully defended his PhD thesis “Multidisciplinary and multiobjective design optimisation of coronary stents” Dr. Pant has taken up take a post-doctoral position in applied mathematics at INRIA, Rocquencourt, France.

Timothy Kamps is a new PhD student investigating the fundamental causes of scuffing failures in automotive piston ring/cylinder liner contacts. He graduated from the University of Southampton with a first class Masters in Mechanical Engineering then spent some time at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, USA. He is now continuing the work he began there as part of a joint PhD programme with nCATS, co-sponsored by Phoenix Tribology.

Maria-Fabiola Leyva-Mendivil is a new PhD student supported by Procter & Gamble and working with Dr Georges Limbert on the development of a multi-physics modelling framework to characterise the interactions of skin and wet shaving products.

PhD student news

Academic post for nCATS graduatenCATS alumnus Dr P. Ramkumar has become Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in IIT Madras, Chennai, India. He will teach BTech and MTech students as well as his research activities by supervising PhD research scholars.

“I chose to study for an Engineering PhD at Southampton because of its impressive research ranking among UK universities and its well-established Tribology group headed by Professor Robert Wood,” he says.

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Master’s student Ping Lu has impressed academic colleagues at nCATS with her project to further develop a ‘biomimetic roboworm’. She is the third student to take on this engineering challenge – making an artificial device that can move through water and eventually burrow into sand or silt, mimicking the action of the nephtys marine worm that moves through mud to search for food. The technology behind this innovation could have many potential applications. Robotic worms or snakes could be used in future to dig holes, lay pipelines or clear up spillage in the oil and gas industries.

Ping moved to Southampton for postgraduate study after her first degree in mechanics at the Beijing Institute of Technology: “I have enjoyed working on this project, ensuring the worm is water tight,

and can move smoothly through water,” she says. The worm was created using 3D printing technology by Ping’s fellow student Mushi Chen. Ping has now started PhD study at nCATS.

Director of nCATS, Professor Robert Wood was Ping’s project co-supervisor along with Professor Mark Gee from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Robert says Ping effectively tackled the project and produced an excellent working prototype. “We provide several projects each year for our MSc students to choose from,” he explains. “They are designed to interest and inspire our students to use the knowledge and skills they have learned in a practical way. Often projects can last for several years, each student develops the concept further during their master’s studies.”

Developing a robotic worm – one student’s challenge

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