Arnaud Caron

KOREATECH, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

Title: Friction and wear at the nanometer scale: Identification and control of the governing mechanisms

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Biography

Arnaud Caron is a materials scientist with expertise in the multi-scale mechanical behavior of materials, surfaces, and micro-components. Since 2015 Arnaud Caron has been a faculty member at KoreaTech – Korea University of Technology and Education, Republic of Korea. Arnaud Caron obtained his engineering degree in Materials Science in 2004 from the University of Saarland, Germany. In 2009, he earned his doctoral degree in Materials Science from the University of Saarland, Germany. From 2007 to 2015, Arnaud Caron worked as a research associate at the Institute of Micro- and Nanomaterials of the University of Ulm, Germany, the WPI-Advanced Institute of Materials Research at the Tohoku University, Japan, and the Leibniz – Institute for New Materials, Germany.

Abstract

Friction and wear significantly impact societies, economies, and the environment. Friction losses alone amount to a fifth of global energy production. This figure is even more severe if wear and its related costs for parts replacement, materials production, and resource depletion are considered. 

Interactions between materials in sliding contacts are complex and involve structural and chemical effects. Contacts between material surfaces initiate at nanoscopic asperities that can be experimentally realized under controlled conditions by applying atomic force microscopy as a nano tribometer. 

This lecture overviews recent experimental results on the friction and wear of various materials at the nanometer scale, such as elastomer, metal, and silicon surfaces. These results illustrate the diversity of operating mechanisms and how they can be selectively investigated.