Tribotronics: When Active Friction Control Faces New Challenges
A special issue of Lubricants (ISSN 2075-4442).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 January 2026) | Viewed by 1068
Special Issue Editor
Interests: friction modelling in dry and wet contacts; control of mechanical systems and mechatronics; testing methodologies of frictional materials in automotive and industrial environments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
With this announcement, I would like to welcome a valuable collection of scientific updates on devices and systems able to unlock new perspectives in the industrial world, but also in collective well-being, safety, and environmental protection, on the basis of knowledge gained in tribology, electronics, and mechatronics, in the framework of current research and developments.
Tribology is the field of research within mechanical engineering, material science, physics, and chemistry, focusing on the surface interaction in relative motion and very often involving fluids to reduce friction and wear. Wear and friction are expected results and, along with the frequent cases where they appear as unfavorable phenomena, in many industrial applications, an increase in friction could even be desired to enhance the behavior of systems such as brakes, clutches, tires, etc.
Once the optimization of materials, bearings geometry, engineered surfaces, lubricants, and additives has reached an asymptotic state due to optimized design, a drastic increase in performance can be still gained in the cutting-edge field of tribotronics through the introduction of smart fluids to actively control vibrations, active surfaces to modulate flexibility and oil wedge shape, and ferrofluids and magnetorheological fluids to promote particle motion in complex nano- and micro-devices.
At the beginning of the second quarter of this century, a successful synergy of a range of advancements in tribology, actuations, sensors, and controls may target goals that were unthinkable only a decade ago.
The current Special Issue of Lubricants is aimed at the latest developments concerning frictional mechanisms combined with active control as well as all the innovations linked to tribological progress at several scales where the real-time “tuning” of friction is the key factor for achieving top-notch performances in industrial systems, vehicles, instruments, devices in biomechanics, and home automation.
Prof. Dr. Adolfo Senatore
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- tribotronics
- tribology
- friction
- industrial systems
- vehicles
- instruments
- devices in biomechanics
- home automation
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