The transmission system is a critical component of advanced equipment. Key elements such as bearings, gears, and pistons undergo tribological behaviours at their contact interfaces during power transmission, including contact, friction, lubrication, and wear. These behaviours significantly impact the reliability, efficiency, and lifespan of the transmission system, as well as the overall performance of the equipment. Therefore, understanding the tribological characteristics at the contact interfaces of these key elements is crucial for the optimal design and manufacturing of transmission systems.

However, under harsh conditions, such as low speeds and heavy loads, there is a strong coupling between the tribological behaviour at the transmission interfaces and the dynamic characteristics of the system. As a result, accurately modelling, predicting, and evaluating the evolution of tribological behaviour in the key elements of transmission systems remains a significant challenge for both industry and academia.

We aim to integrate knowledge from lubrication theory, contact mechanics, gear meshing principles, dynamics, and heat transfer to propose transient/dynamic tribological models for key elements of transmission systems, such as bearings and gears, from a multidisciplinary perspective. Furthermore, we seek to incorporate advanced numerical solution techniques to address the aforementioned challenges. Additionally, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying friction and wear at transmission contact interfaces on a more microscopic scale (at the micro/nano asperity level). This would help further elucidate the cross-scale mapping relationships between these mechanisms and the macroscopic structural and operational parameters. Therefore, we also advocate integrating cutting-edge research fields such as micro/nano tribology, adhesion, and nano-thin films into the study of tribology at transmission interfaces. We warmly invite scholars from around the world working in the field of transmission system tribology to contribute their pioneering research to this topic.

The scope of this Research Topic includes but is not limited to:

• Tribo-dynamic modeling of various gear transmission systems;

• Transient/dynamic wear prediction at gear transmission interfaces;

• Reliability and lifespan prediction of gears or rolling bearings;

• Tribological characteristics of journal/thrust bearings in marine propulsion systems or wind turbines;

• Tribological study of joint reducers in intelligent robots;

• Lubrication performance degradation at transmission interfaces;

• Tribological study of transmission devices in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS);

• Experimental study of tribology in transmission systems.

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Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering

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