Discover how friction, wear and lubrication affect the performance and lifetime of moving components, and learn to analyse contacts and improve their reliability.
Tribology provides a practical and comprehensive overview of contacting surfaces, friction, wear and lubrication. You will learn how to analyze various types of contacts, explain and apply basic friction laws, recognise and assess the main wear mechanisms, and understand lubrication mechanisms in terms of lubricant film formation and load carrying capacity.
The course also introduces the thermodynamics of tribology, helping you connect energy dissipation, losses and degradation to real system behaviour. Other special topics include electric contacts, and non-conventional lubrication such as magnetic levitation MAGLEV used in high-speed bullet trains and magnetic bearings. This course enables you to apply fundamentals from solid mechanics, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and materials science to tribological problems encountered in engineering practice.
Tribology is essential in almost every mechanical system: wherever surfaces interact with each other, friction and wear influence efficiency, reliability, lifetime and maintenance costs. As organisations aim for higher performance, lower energy use and more sustainable products, understanding energy losses and component degradation becomes increasingly important.
Professionals who can translate operating conditions into robust material and lubrication choices reduce failure risks and improve overall system performance.
This is a regular master-level course in which both students and professionals can participate. The theory is taught in lectures, using the following book as a guide:
Lecture notes composed by the professor are used in class and subsequently uploaded to Canvas for students’ reference.
Participants work on an assignment in which they apply the concepts and methods to a tribological problem. The assignment results in a written report, and the course concludes with an oral exam in which the report findings are defended and the theoretical understanding is assessed. If needed, content from the preceding BSc course on Tribology can be provided to support participants who want to refresh their fundamentals at the start of the course.
This course is intended for professionals who work with mechanical systems where friction, wear and lubrication affect performance and reliability. Typical roles include, but are not limited to, mechanical engineers, design engineers, lubrication engineers, maintenance and reliability engineers, tribology or materials specialists, R&D engineers, applied mechanics engineers, bearing enthusiasts, and engineers working in precision engineering or high-tech systems.
Start date: February (Q3)
Total duration: February till April (excluding resits) (140 hours study load)
Number of teaching days / sessions: Lectures + assignment (report) + oral exam
Total programme fees: €2067,15 (5 ECTS *413.43).
Programme type: master course
Location: University of Twente, Enschede, NL
Language of instruction: English
Admission requirements: Basic knowledge of fluid mechanics, material science, and solid mechanics (BSc level).
Teachers: