Founder of TriboNet, Editor, PhD (Tribology), Tribology Scientist at ASML, The Netherlands. Expertise in lubrication, friction, wear and contact mechanics with emphasis on modeling. Creator of Tribology Simulator.
“Car 2020” and Tribology Research
Friction has been a challenge for the mankind throughout the whole history since it resists the motion. It resists the transportation of goods. And transportation shares 20% of the global energy consumption and approximately 18% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Out of this share, road transportation builds up to 72% of the total energy consumed by the transportation sector. And the passenger cars share 45% of the energy use and emissions.
A recent report on the energy consumption due to friction losses in passenger cars by Kenneth Holmberg et al. estimates that only 21.5% of the potential fuel energy is used to move the car, whereas direct frictional losses account for 33% (28% if breaking is excluded). Within these losses, 35% is used to overcome tire-road friction, 35% to overcome engine friction, 15% – transmission and 15% brake contact friction.
The authors also estimated the potential benefits from the tribological research and implementation of the new solutions to reduce the friction. They calculate that a “Car-2010”, with the most sophisticated tribological technology available today, if implemented in all existing cars, the frictional energy losses can be reduced 42% and 37% of global fuel consumption. And the forecast for the “Car-2020”, which has to come with the R&D activity in tribology, states that the fuel consumption would be reduced by 70% from today’s levels. The tribological means for the friction reduction according to the authors, include implementation of coatings, texturing and use of low-viscous lubricants.
These and many other interesting details can be found in the original article by Kenneth Holmerg, Peter Andersson and Ali Erdemir.
Credit for image: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29211.
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