Modeling and Simulation of Tribological Problems in Technology

This book conveys, in a self-contained manner, the fundamental concepts for classifying types of contact, the essential mathematical methods for the formulation of contact problems, and the numerical methods required for their solution. In addition to the methodologies, it covers a broad range of applications, including contact problems in mechanical engineering, microelectronics and nanomechanics. All chapters provide both substantial background on the theory and numerical methods, and in-depth treatments of cutting-edge research topics and applications.

The book is primarily intended for doctoral students of applied mathematics, mechanics, engineering and physics with a strong interest in the theoretical modelling, numerical simulation and experimental characterization of contact problems in technology. It will also benefit researchers in the above mentioned and neighbouring fields working in academia or at private research and development centres who are interested ina concise yet comprehensive overview of contact mechanics, from its fundamental mathematical background, to the computational methods and the experimental techniques currently available for the solution of contact problems.

Marco Paggi is full professor of Structural Mechanics at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy, where he serves as director of the research unit Multi-scale Analysis of Materials (MUSAM) and of the experimental laboratory MUSAM-Lab. He has been the principal investigator of several Italian and EU projects, including a prestigious ERC Starting Grant and an ERC Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council. His research interests span various topics of continuum mechanics, with special focus on contact mechanics, fracture mechanics and coupled problems. On these topics, he published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed international journals.

 

David Hills read Engineering Science at St John’s College, Oxford, UK from 1973-6, and was a research assistant and then lecturer at what was then Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham from 1977-1983. He then took up an appointment at University of Oxford, UK in the Department of EngineeringScience, together with a Fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he has been ever since. His main research interests have been in fretting and fretting fatigue, supported mainly by the British physical sciences research council (EPSRC) and commercially by Rolls-Royce plc.