Visualization Techniques in Tribology

"Seeing is believing" is a phrase that conveys the idea that people tend to believe something more strongly and confidently when they can actually see it with their own eyes. It suggests that visual evidence or firsthand experience holds a significant level of conviction and trustworthiness, often surpassing what is merely heard or described. The phrase implies that when you witness something directly, you are more likely to accept its reality or truthfulness compared to when you rely solely on descriptions or explanations. In short, the act of seeing something with your own eyes can be a powerful way to persuade and convince yourself or others of its existence or validity. For this reason, techniques to visualize phenomena that are normally invisible are very effective in elucidating phenomena and are utilized in a variety of academic fields.

Of course, various visualization techniques are also used in tribology to contribute to the better understanding of complex phenomena. Tribology is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies friction, wear, and lubrication of surfaces in relative motion. Tribology plays an important role in understanding and optimizing the performance, durability, and efficiency of mechanical systems and components, from small-scale equipment to large-scale industrial machinery. That is, tribology aims to investigate the complex interactions between materials under various conditions and to minimize friction and wear through the use of lubricants, coatings, and surface treatments. However, since tribology deals with severe contact conditions that result in thin film thicknesse (nm order) and high contact pressure (GPa order), the development of visualization techniques is very important to elucidate the phenomena. Moreover, visualization of actual complex phenomena not only verifies existing theories but also provides opportunities for new discoveries and hints for the construction of new theories that emerge from such discoveries.

Therefore, in this Research Topic, we would like to collect topics related to various visualization techniques developed to elucidate tribological phenomena. This topic includes not only realistic analytical methods, but also computer simulation methods. We hope that this Research Topic will contribute not only to tribology, which deals with the complex phenomena, but also to various research fields.

This Research Topic was done with the collaboration of Florian Becker-Dombrowsky, M.SC. from the Technical University of Darmstadt.