Friction and Wear of Ceramics Principles and Case Studies

This book covers the area of tribology broadly, providing important introductory chapters to fundamentals, processing, and applications of tribology. The book is designed primarily for easy and cohesive understanding for students and practicing scientists pursuing the area of tribology with focus on materials. This book helps students and practicing scientists alike understand that a comprehensive knowledge about the friction and wear properties of advanced materials is essential to further design and development of new materials.

The description of the wear micromechanisms of various materials will provide a strong background to the readers as how to design and develop new tribological materials. This book also places importance on the development of new ceramic composites in the context of tribological applications.

Some of the key features of the book include: Fundamentals section highlights the salient issues of ceramic processing and mechanical properties of important oxide and non-oxide ceramic systems; State of the art research findings on important ceramic composites are included and an understanding on the behavior of silicon carbide (SiC) based ceramic composites in dry sliding wear conditions is presented as a case study; Erosion wear behavior of ceramics, in which case studies on high temperature erosion behavior of SiC based composites and zirconium diboride (ZrB2) based composites is also covered; Wear behavior of ceramic coatings is rarely discussed in any tribology related books therefore a case study explaining the abrasion wear behavior of WC-Co coating is provided. Finally an appendix chapter is included in which a collection of several types of questions including multiple choice, short answer and long answer are provided.

BIKRAMJIT BASU, PHD, is a Professor at the Materials Research Center with joint appointment at the Centre for Biosystems Science and Engineering, and Interdisciplinary Center for Energy Research at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Encompassing experimental and theoretical analysis, his research, at the intersection of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, has laid the foundation of next generation of wear resistant ceramics and provided deeper understanding into their wear mechanisms.

MITJAN KALIN, PHD, is a Professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, where he is the Head of the Laboratory for Tribology and Interface Nanotechnology and the Chair for Tribology and Maintenance Technology. Dr Kalin's areas of research are the wear and friction mechanisms of advanced materials, nanoscale interface phenomena, and boundary films for novel green-lubrication technologies, including his widely recognized contribution to the lubrication of DLC coatings.

B. VENKATA MANOJ KUMAR, PHD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. With the primary theme of understanding microstructure-property relations, Dr. Kumar has been actively involved in processing advanced ceramic systems and studying the influence of microstructural characteristics on their material removal mechanisms when subjected to varieties of wear and machining conditions.