Project Details

Title : IMPROVING TRIBOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF PISTON RING USING OPTIMISED SURFACE TEXTURED DLC COATING

Piston assesmbly contributes about 45% of frictional losses in IC engine , so many studies are going on to reduce this losses, even if 1% of frictional losses can be reduce it will give huge economic benefits. It has been recently identified that texturing of a tribological surface reduces friction at sliding contact interfaces as it act as a micro reservoir for lubricant but still behavior of microtextured surface are not clear there are many contradiction exists in literature. In present study microtexturing is going to be utilized to reduce friction in piston ring –cylinder liner contact and simultaneously decoupling of contradiction exits in literature will be done.

Further in this study effect of surface texturing on tribological performance DLC coated piston ring is going to be accessed and also effect of various lubricant additives will be evaluated.

Project Details

Title : Effects of solid lubricants (Graphite, MoS2 and Sb2S3) of Cu/SiC hybrid composite brake materials on tribological properties for medium duty automotive applications

Generally, the brake pad friction materials consist of binders, reinforcing fibres, fillers, solid lubricants and abrasives etc. Among various metallic binders and ceramic fibres, Copper (Cu) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) combination provide good wear resistance, high toughness, high thermal conductivity and low heat thermal expansion and also SiC is more compatible with Cu material. In spite of having many components in brake pad materials, solid lubricants play an important role to enhance their tribological properties, particularly, frictional behaviour, in automotive brake system.

The aim of this work is to investigate the complementary role of solid lubricants such as graphite, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) and antimony trisulphide (Sb2S3) in Cu/SiC hybrid composite brake friction materials. For this study, an experimental investigation will be carried out to examine the tribological behaviour of NAO (non-asbestos organic) type brake friction materials containing the above mentioned all three solid lubricants with different volume ratios of 7.5%, 10% and 12.5%; keeping 50% Cu as metal matrix, 30% SiC as reinforcing fibre and the remainder barium sulphate ( BaSO4) as filler. For each volume ratio of total solid lubricants, further divided into 4 levels such way that changing the individual volume percentage of solid lubricants among themselves but keep their total volume percentage is constant.

The test samples will be prepared by conventional powder metallurgy techniques and undergo micro structure analysis and material characterization. The experiments will be carried out using a fully instrumented Pin-on-Disc (PoD) Test rig with linear variable differential transducer (LVDT) for wear rate and strain gauge for friction measurement under dry condition for medium duty automotive applications. In post-test analysis, morphology, wear mechanisms and compositions of worn out surfaces will be examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) as well.

Test Rig - Pin-on-disc tribometer

Fig. 1. (a) Prepared frictional brake pad sample & (b) Pad dimension

Fig. 2 FESEM micrograph of Cu/30%SiC/12.5%BaSO4/7.5%Graphite composite

Fig. 3 Elemental mapping of Cu/30%SiC/12.5%BaSO4/7.5%Graphite composite

Project Details

Title : Texturing and multi-layer coatings for improved biotribological performance and longevity of bio-implants.

Texturing is an advanced surface modification technique to enhance tribological characteristics of two articulating surfaces. It has found its application in piston rings of an engine and other bearing components due to its ability to reduce coefficient of friction (COF) by minimizing real area of contact between two mating surfaces. Also, textures generate an extra hydrodynamic pressure and avoids direct metal to metal contacts to decrease COF and wear under lubricating conditions.

Coatings of ceramic, metals, solid lubricants and other nano particles are used to improve the friction and wear performance of bio implants and increasing its longevity.

Project Details

Title : Mitigate the formation of White Etching Areas (WEAs) and extend life of wind turbine gearbox bearings

Wind turbine gearbox tends to fail predominantly at several critical bearing locations due to subsurface microstructural changes called White Etching Area (WEA). White etching cracks (WECs) associated with microstructural changes in white etching area (WEA) drastically reduces L 10 life of bearing as little as 1-20% and 6-24 months operation in wind turbine gearbox bearings.

The most prevalent gearbox bearing steel failure is associated with subsurface microstructural changes in bearing steel called White Etching Crack (WEC). The detailed mechanism of formation of WEC is still under investigation for complete understanding. Extensive research is continuing to extend the life of bearings from the premature WECs failure by implementing alternatives in lubrication and material aspect.

Project Details

Title : Development of Novel Corrosive Resistance Coating for Bio Hip-Implant

Project Details

Title : FEM WEAR PREDICTION

Project Details

Title : Wear simulation for Dry sliding wear using Finite Element Analysis.

Wear is an important aspect that has to be considered in tribological design.Generally wear is calculated experimentally. The aim of research topic is to simulate the wear of metal on metal in dry sliding condition with the help of finite element method.

Project Details

Title : Formulation of brake pad material.

Generally brake pads have more then ten ingredients in their composition, to formulate them in right proportion and right size is major challenge, the major components are Reinforcement, Binders, Friction modifiers, and Fillers.

The aim of this work is to formulate brake pad using Aluminium metal matrix composites in NAO ( Non Asbestos Organic) brake pads and SiC, Alumina as a reinforcement and Graphite as a lubricant and will see the optimum tribological behaviour for different proportions and different sizes.

Project Details

Title : Tribological Analysis of White Etching Crack and Extending the Life of Bearing in Vertical Roller Mill Roller.

White etching crack (WEC) failure is identified as cause of detrimental premature failure of rolling element bearing in a number of application including wind turbine gearbox bearing and automotive electrical instrument and auxiliary devices. It appears to be distinct from classical rolling contact fatigue (RCF) failure in wide range of rolling element bearing applications. The typical L10 life of bearing, is about 10⁸ contact cycles, depleted to 1-20% due to WEC. The aim of the research is to find out the root cause of WEC and extending the life of bearing.

Project Details

Title : Prevention of white etching cracks in wind turbine bearings.

Exploring material aspects to prevent or diminish rate of hydrogen penetration into the steel. Suggesting material selection for better prevention from WECs in wind turbine bearings.

Project Details

Title : Evaluate the performance of Biomimetic Surface Textures using Computational Methods.

Project Details

Title : Multi objective optimization of combined two stage gear pair and epicyclic gear train of wind turbine gearbox(WTG) using Tribological constraint.

Project Details

Title : FEM Wear prediction of Automotive Ball Joint

Project Details

Title : IMPROVING TRIBOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF PISTON RING USING OPTIMISED SURFACE TEXTURED DLC COATING.

Piston assesmbly contributes about 45% of frictional losses in IC engine , so many studies are going on to reduce this losses, even if 1% of frictional losses can be reduce it will give huge economic benefits. It has been recently identified that texturing of a tribological surface reduces friction at sliding contact interfaces as it act as a micro reservoir for lubricant but still behavior of microtextured surface are not clear there are many contradiction exists in literature. In present study microtexturing is going to be utilized to reduce friction in piston ring –cylinder liner contact and simultaneously decoupling of contradiction exits in literature will be done.

Further in this study effect of surface texturing on tribological performance DLC coated piston ring is going to be accessed and also effect of various lubricant additives will be evaluated.

Project Details

Title : Determining Brake torque fade behavior in Elevator Brakes

Spring actuated electromagnetic brakes, used in Elevators. Brake torque of both the brake half's put together is 700 N-m. It is essential to evolve the brake torque fading behaviour over the number of duty cycles operated.