The macroscopic behaviour of a tribosystem is determined by microscopic processes at the tribologically stressed surfaces. It is well accepted, that structural and chemical changes are involved and, in general, the bodies in contact are subject to wear, i.e. loss of material.

In-depth understanding of these processes requires suitable methods, permitting the observation of the tribological process in progress. This is in contrast to the common practice of analyzing the tribopartners post-mortem, i.e. after the end of the experiment.

Ultimately, understanding of the tribological process at a microscopic level contributes to the design of optimal tribosystems.

Consequently, the main activities of the area “Friction Surface Phenomena & Tribodiagnostic” are the development of novel diagnostic techniques, applied to both, model systems in the laboratory and practical tribosystems, as well as the optimisation of tribosystems for a variety of applications. A major challenge is the transfer of information between laboratory and practical tribosystems, i.e. the construction of a suitable laboratory model for a practical tribosystem.

Needless to say, that information obtained from diagnostic methods needs to be com-bined with results and knowledge from chemistry, mechanical engineering, materials science and numerical modelling to understand the whole picture. The latter contributions are usually provided by other Areas of AC²T-XTribology, thus making the present area a node in a tightly knit network.

The area encompasses presently 3 strategic research projects, mainly focussed on the development of new diagnostic methods and 6 multi-firm projects dealing with tribosystems in practical applications. 15 PhD-students and 3 PostDocs perform the research work connected to the projects with support from the pools of AC2T.