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Professor Robert Wood

Professor Robert Wood

Professor of Surface Engand Tribology

Research interests

  • 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, renewable energy systems and electrification of transportation. His research projects look at detecting wear, corrosion, friction and lubrication using these measurements to improve condition monitoring of machines including EVs and aeroengine fan blades and to optimise surface engineering for extended service life, energy efficiency and to drive tribology based digital twins and machine learning development.

More research

Email: r.wood@soton.ac.uk

Address: B7, East Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ

Research

Research groups

Research interests

  • 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, renewable energy systems and electrification of transportation. His research projects look at detecting wear, corrosion, friction and lubrication using these measurements to improve condition monitoring of machines including EVs and aeroengine fan blades and to optimise surface engineering for extended service life, energy efficiency and to drive tribology based digital twins and machine learning development.

Current research

His projects are aimed to create knowledge of future lubricants/ contact surface interactions, system degradation and contamination and their mitigation for seawater propulsion/tidal turbine, transmission systems, leading edges of aeroengine fan blades and wind turbine blades, electric vehicles and high power density engines. They use advanced and multimodal sensor technology, tribometer test facilities, advanced materials and coatings, data fusion and machine learning to detect degradation mechanisms, outliers and early wear.     

Research projects

Completed projects

Researchers:
Sponsor: EPSRC
Researchers:
Sponsor: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Researchers:
Sponsor: Schlumberger
Researchers:
Sponsor: Chevron Oronite Company LLC
Researchers:
Sponsor: Tribotex (Japanese)
Researchers:
Sponsor: European Union
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