Professor Robert J K Wood FREng, CEng, FIMechE, FICorr, FIMMM, FHEA
Professor of Surface Engineering and Tribology, Associate Dean of Research,Founder of the UK National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) , Chair of UK Tribology (cross institutional committee from IMechE, IoP, IET, IOM3, RSC)
Professor Robert J K Wood founded the UK National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Professor Robert Wood is Professor of Surface Engineering and Tribology within Engineering Sciences of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton and has 30 years research experience in the field of tribology and surface engineering. He has spent several years at BP Research researching into erosion and corrosion resistant coatings but returned to Southampton in 1993 to re-establish surface engineering/tribology research. His group was awarded an EPSRC S&I award in 2008 (£10M) to create the National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) and was awarded a further £3M for research into Green Tribology under a platform Grant from EPSRC. He is currently PI of a collaborative EPSRC funded project looking at early wear detection using array sensors and machine learning algorithms for anomaly and outlier detection for condition monitoring of mechanical systems.
Professor Robert Wood has research interests in rain, cavitation and solid particle erosion, erosion-corrosion interactions and modelling; tribological and multifunctional coating design and performance, biomimetic coatings for anti-fouling; electrochemical control of interfacial friction; particle modelling in pipe bends by swirl dispersion of particles. He has been involved in working on erosion of helicopter blades, nuclear slurry handling systems at Sellafield, reverse thrust actuators on aero engines, polymer coatings for potable water systems as well as offshore choke valves. He has teaching experience in Surface Engineering, Tribological Engineering and Fluid Mechanics at Undergraduate and MSc level.
Professor Robert Wood has research interests that span the application of lubrication, wear and friction science to current and next generation critical machine components such as bearings, transmissions, turbines, pumps and oil and gas drills.
Green Tribology
He heads a major research effort into Green Tribology where the management and reduction of wear and friction are obtained from solutions that are more environmentally friendly and relate to sustainable systems such as wind and tidal energy capture. Solutions being explored include surfaces inspired by nature, water based lubricants, sensing of wear for improved control of machines, and texturing surfaces for low drag/friction. http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/J001023/1
Marine Tribology
Marine-based research includes a tidal turbine project looking at protecting blades from solid and cavitation erosion combined with corrosion, cavitation erosion-corrosion of ships propulsion systems and anti-fouling and drag reduction for marine vessels.
Tribological Coatings
Assessment of coating survival in next generation nuclear plant; impact and erosion resistant coatings for wind turbine blade protection and military applications, wind turbine transmission tribology; suspension spraying of thick thermally sprayed coatings.
Engagement with the newly formed Southampton Centre for Arthroplasty Revision Surgery (SOCARS) hosted by the NHS Southampton University Foundation Trust. Nanowear and nanofretting of biomedical materials, and forensic analysis of failed hip replacements.
Aerospace Tribology
Seconded to Rolls-Royce under a senior KTS scheme to identify what tribology means to Rolls-Royce and to suggest provision of solutions.
This is a two year project aiming to design and build a novel friction simulation device at the National Centre for Advanced Tribology. The project will allow us to re-create in the laboratory the conditions that occur during oilfield exploration. This will allow better understanding as to the conditions and effects that arise from friction when exploring for hydro-carbon reservoirs or to reach geothermal energy sources.
The project focusses on the electrochemical properties and energy capability of the aluminium – air battery system. This comprises the separate half-cells, including the aluminium anode and its alloys as well as the cathode materials for oxygen reduction and the electrolytes with and without additives. The project propose the construction of a structural three dimensional battery and it is based on a PhD project currently in the final stages.
Tribology is the study of friction, lubrication and wear. Decreasing friction by any means always leads to welcome reductions in fuel and energy consumption, with a corresponding decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Using structured surface rather than smooth surface to decrease friction is at variance with the classical tribology theories. However, it really happened and has been proved by worldwide researchers.
This project uses a novel method to structure a metal surface with dimples from the micro to nano scale, after which it can be chemically modified to make it hydrophobic.
Materials with submicron- or nano-scaled grains produced by severe plastic deformation (SPD) offer new structural and functional properties for innovative products in a wide range of applications. The aims of this study are to understand the effect of SPD processing on wear behaviour of materials, to seek a way to use SPD processing to improve the mechanical properties of materials and their wear resistance.
Cavitation erosion-corrosion phenomenon is inevitable in marine propulsion system and has adverse effects on the life and functioning of the propellers. The intensity of the cavitation wear and the exact location of its occurrence have been found to be difficult to predict.The main aim of this PhD project is to identify cavitation wear-corrosion mechanism of marine materials used in propellers and rudders in order to characterize the materials based on their behaviour to cavitation erosion simulated by a vibratory probe device. Several tests will be conducted, with and without cavitation protection, using both direct and indirect methods of cavitation erosion tests along with incorporation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling of the experiment.This research is sponsored by the university research groups National Centre of Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) and Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI), along with Lloyd’s Register.
Wood, R. J. K. (2004). Challenges of living with erosion-corrosion. In Advanced materials for fluid machinery second international symposium (pp. 113-132). Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Conferences
Lu, P., Wood, R., Grundy, J., Harris, N., Harvey, T. J., Niranjan, M., Powrie, H., & Li, L. (2019). Monitoring the health of tribo-contacts. In ÖTG-Symposium 2019 professional conference proceeding The Austrian Tribology Society.
Symonds, N., Corni, I., Wasenczuk, A., Wood, R., & Vincent, D. (2014). Observing early stage rail-axle bearing damage. Sixth International Conference on Engineering Failure Anlysis, Lisbon, Portugal.
Ang, K. C., Wood, R. J. K., & Wang, L. (Accepted/In press). Addressing the optical reflection issues in complex rough surfaces. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Metrology and Properties of Engineering Surfaces, Rzeszow, Poland (2009) Rzeszow University of Technology.
Ang, K. C., Wood, R. J. K., & Wang, L. (2007). Characterisation of electron beam sculpted surfaces. Paper presented at 13th Materials, Surface Engineering and Bioengineering Sciences Research Groups' Postgraduate Conference, .
Chambers, L. D., Walsh, F. C., Wood, R. J. K., & Stokes, K. R. (2006). Biomimetic approach to the design of the marine antifouling coatings. In World Maritime Technology Conference. Maritime innovation - delivering global solutions (Conference proceedings of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology). Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.
Wood, R. J. K., Dan, S., Moshrefi-Torbati, M., Misra, S., Valappil, S. P., Boccaccini, A., & Roy, I. (2006). Nanoindentation testing of biodegradabale polymers. Paper presented at Cambridge Micro-Mechanical Testing Centre (CAMTEC) Workshop, United Kingdom.
Wood, R. J. K., Ramkumar, P., Wang, L., Harvey, T. J., Nelson, K., Yamaguchi, E. S., Harrison, J. J., Powrie, H. E. G., & Otin, N. (2005). Electrostatic monitoring of the effects of carbon black on lubricated steel/steel sliding contacts. In D. Dowson, M. Priest, G. Dalmaz, & A. A. Lubrecht (Eds.), Life cycle Tribology: 31st Leeds-lyon Tribology Symposium (pp. 109-123). (Tribology & Interface Engineering; Vol. 48). Elsevier.
Wang, L., Wood, R. J. K., Care, I., & Powrie, H. (2004). Electrostatic wear sensing of ceramic-steel lubricated contacts. In A. Lubrecht, & G. Dalmaz (Eds.), Transient Processes In Tribology (pp. 711-720). (Tribology and Interface Engineering; No. 43). Elsevier.
Townsend, R. J., Hill, M., Harris, N. R., White, N. M., Wood, R. J. K., & Beeby, S. P. (2004). Fluid modelling of microfluid separator channels. 124-125. Paper presented at Eurosensors XVIII, .
Care, I., Wood, R. J. K., Harvey, T. J., Morris, S., Wang, L., & Powrie, H. E. G. (2003). Electrostatic monitoring of aerospace bearings. 531-538. Paper presented at Sensors & their Applications XIII, .
Wood, R. J. K., Harvey, T. J., Morris, S., & Powrie, H. E. G. (2002). Electrostatic monitoring of boundary and mixed lubrication. In Proceedings of 28th Leeds-Lyon symposium on Tribology: Boundary and mixed lubrication (pp. 83-92). (Tribology Series; No. 40). Elsevier.
Wood, R. J. K., Jones, T. F., & Ganeshalingam, J. (2002). Erosion in swirl-inducing pipes. In 2002 Proceedings of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting: Cd-Rom (pp. 31287). ASME Press.
Bose, K., Wheeler, D. W., & Wood, R. J. K. (2001). Micro-abrasion of CVD diamond coatings. Paper presented at University of Southampton School of Engineering Sciences Postgraduate Conference, .
