Sustainable Design Research Centre

Studies of surface wear mechanisms and integration of sustainable development issues within advanced in engineering components and systems is the underlying principle of this research Centre. Issues of tribology (friction, wear and lubrication) are studied to help understand their influence on product durability and energy consumption.

The activities of this theme include three areas 1; "Tribology and Environmental Design", 2; Ceramics Tribology and 3; Sustainable Design Education. The Centre has extensive experimental facilities to assess wear mechanisms of rolling and sliding contacts.

This includes a rotary tribometer, a micro-frication machine and a scanning surface microscope. We have formed strong partnerships with multinational companies such as SKF (Netherlands), Oakland Ridge National Laboratories (USA), Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Energetix, Smith & Nephew plc, and secured funding from The Royal Academy of Engineering and EPSRC. Collaborative work is also being carried out with other universities such as Oviedo University in Spain, Ashikaga Institute in Japan and County Carlow Institute of Technology in Ireland.