Tribotronics

Tribotronics is an area of research that combines machine elements and electronic components to create active tribological systems. This is achieved through continuous monitoring and adjustment of tribosystems, resulting in increased machine efficiency and lifetime.

Definition

Tribotronics refers to the combined use of tribology and electronics to control tribological systems.[1] Tribotronic systems are designed to improve efficiency, reliability and lifetime of machine elements by active control of tribosystem inputs (such as force, torque, rotational speeds, etc.), outputs (such as motion, changes in energy, etc.) and losses (such as friction, wear, vibrations, etc.). This is in contrast to traditional tribological and mechatronic systems, where losses are seen as a function of system inputs rather than desired set-points. While the term was originally coined with a particular emphasis on the control of tribological losses,[1] it is increasingly used to describe any active system that combines tribological and electronic components, irrespective of the process variables and set-points of the control loop.[2]

Design of tribotronic systems

One way to design tribotronic systems is to build control loops around passive machine elements (such as gears, fluid bearings and rolling-element bearings) in order to create active machine elements. Relevant process variables (tribosystem inputs, outputs, losses and structure) of the control loop may include:[1][2]

References

  1. Glavatskih, Sergei; Höglund, Erik (2008). "Tribotronics—Towards active tribology". Tribology International. 41 (9–10): 934–939. doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2007.03.001.
  2. Zhang, Chi; Wang, Zhong Lin (2016). "Tribotronics—A new field by coupling triboelectricity and semiconductor". Nano Today. 11 (4): 521–536. doi:10.1016/j.nantod.2016.07.004.
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