Tribology Group Photo

The Tribology Group at Imperial College London is one of the largest and most renowned tribology research groups in the world today. Its research is strongly supported by companies in Europe, the USA and the Far East and it collaborates with many universities across the globe.

Tribology is the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion. This includes study of friction, lubrication, contact mechanics, surface damage processes and surface optimisation. It is highly multidisciplinary and spans applications ranging from metal forming to replacement hip joints. A particular area of current concern is the reduction of friction in order to increase the efficiency of machines and thereby reduce global energy use.

The Tribology Group currently comprises six academics and more than 50 full time research assistants and PhD students. Research areas of particular interest include lubricant chemistry and rheology, hydrodynamic, elastohydrodynamic and boundary lubrication, contact mechanics, surface coatings, biotribology, wear and surface fatigue.

The group has an outstanding history of experimental tribology research and in the last decade this has been augmented by a strong modelling activity, spanning the molecular to continuum scales.