Tribology is the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion

The GACHOT tribology research group at the TU Wien studies lubricant-surface interactions, functionalised surfaces for tribological applications, near surface damages in tribological contacts (materials tribology) and new approaches to model contact phenomena at different scales.

Our contributions focus on basic research and the transfer of knowledge to industrial applications with an emphasis on machine elements. 

 

Research

Circular enumeration of subfields of tribology, in the center representations of surface contacts and measurement technology

© Forschungsgruppe Tribologie

Current research projects with focus on machine elements

Teaching

Girl with blond hair from behind points to a sheet of paper on a table

© TU Wien

Courses currently held

Current guest researchers

[Translate to English:] Portrait von Xudong Sui

© Xudong Sui

Xudong Sui received his PhD from the Northeastern University in China in 2017 where he studied advanced hard coatings for high speed cutting titanium alloy under Prof. Dr. Qiang Wang and Prof. Dr. Guojian Li. After graduation, Dr. Sui joined Prof. Weimin Liu’s group in the State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science. There, he was engaged in the design and preparation of high-performance lubricating and protective coatings and research on tribological mechanisms and was promoted to associate professor in 2018. He has authored more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Since 2024, he is a visiting researcher at TU Wien to continue his tribological research career at the Gachot Tribology Group.

Research Interests:

  • PVD Coating Technology: MS, HIPIMS, In-tube Deposition, ARC…
  • Advanced coatings: Nitride, Carbon based, 2D materials, High entropy…
  • Tribology: Tribochemistry, Superlubricity, Solid lubrication…

Personal links

   

Portrait of Hanglin Li

© Hanglin Li

Hanglin Li is a PhD student majoring in physical chemistry in East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST, China). He has studied in Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science supervised by Prof. Jiusheng Li for five years, focusing on the interfacial lubrication of graphene oxide. He joined the Gachot’s Tribology Group at TU Wien in 2024 as a one-year visiting student supported by the Chinese Scholarship Council. In Vienna he continues his research on tribology on 2D materials.

Personal links

  

Portrait of Marco De Stefano

© Marco De Stefano

Marco graduated in Management Engineering at University of Salerno in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Alessandro Ruggiero. The thesis involved the evaluation of Real Contact Area in mechanical couplings via statistical models and finite element approach. In this circumstance, a traineeship period of three months in Ljubljana, Slovenia was achieved at the laboratory for tribology and interface nanotechnology (Head of research group, Prof. Mitjan Kalin). From April 2020 to November 2021, he worked as researcher at University of Salerno regarding the contact mechanics in presence of friction. At the moment Marco is a PhD Student and Assistant Lecturer of the courses “Mechanics applied to the Machines” and “Tribology” at University of Salerno. His research activities are essentially focused on tribocorrosion phenomena as much as on Finite Element simulations of biomedical couplings. Lastly, he was a visiting researcher for four months at TU Wien where he collaborated with Professor Carsten Gachot and with Hakan Göçerler on the biotribology of knee prosthesis.

Personal Links:

  

News

[Translate to English:] Drei dreidimensionale Computerdarstellungen der Metallstruktur: Quader bestehend aus kleinen unregelmäßigen Körnchen.

A seemingly paradoxical effect: friction normally causes more damage at higher speeds. But at extremely high speeds, it is the other way around.