Reduction in tribological energy losses in the transportation and electric utilities sectors

This report is part of a study of ways and means of advancing the national energy conservation effort, particularly with regard to oil, via progress in the technology of tribology. The report is confined to two economic sectors: transportation, where the scope embraces primarily the highway fleets, and electric utilities. Together these two sectors account for half of the US energy consumption. Goal of the study is to ascertain the energy sinks attributable to tribological components and processes and to recommend long-range research and development (R and D) programs aimed at reducing these losses. In addition to the obvious tribological machine components such as bearings, piston rings, transmissions and so on, the study also extends to processes which are linked to tribology indirectly such as wear of machine parts, coatings of blades, high temperature materials leading to higher cycle efficiencies, attenuation of vibration, and other cycle improvements