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	Dr. David Rigney Professor Ph.D., Cornell University, 1965 Tel. (614) 292-1775 Office: 492 Watts Hall rigney.1@osu.edu Fontana and MacQuigg Awards for Teaching Scott Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Chair, Gordon Research Conference, Tribology, 2000 Fellow, ASM International Associate Director, OSU Center for Materials Research
Additional links... Publications OSU MSE dept. homepage

Fig 1: Schematic diagram showing pin/disk sliding system allowing tests in different environmenmts. The test system is equipped with strain gages for monitoring friction force, a CCD optical probe and video system for visual monitoring of the wear track on the disk, and a Kelvin probe to detect changes in the work function arising from structural and chemical changes at the surface.

Fig 2: Detail of extruded material on surface of 1100 aluminum showing evidence of shear instabilities during sliding. Average spacing of lamellae is 2.3 µm. This is the same as that of the deformation substructure observed by TEM.

Prof. Rigney's research has included solidification, work-hardening, NMR, and electromigration. His present research is on materials aspects of friction and wear. He has served on the Physical Metallurgy, Alloy Phases, Membership, and Hume-Rothery Award committees of AIME and the Executive Committee of the Board of Review and the Joint Commission of Metal.Trans.A. He has also been active in University assignments such as serving on the Council on Academic Affairs. From 1972-74, he served as chairman of the Ohio Natural Areas Council, whose members are appointed by the governor. He is a fellow of ASM and was deputy editor of Scripta Metallurgica, 1975-1988, acting editor, June-December 1988. He was editor of the series Wear of Materials (1997-2001).

Professor Rigney's current research concerns materials aspects of sliding friction and wear. Recent fundamental research has focussed on mechanisms and phenomena including phase transformations, energy dissipation, adhesion and transfer, mechanical mixing, fracture and environmental effects. This work is being complemented by computer simulations using molecular dynamics. Recent applied research has included studies of the wear of dies used for production of wire for tires, damage in rail/wheel systems under mixed dry and wet conditions, tribology of trolley systems in high speed trains, friction and wear of Al/SiC composites at elevated temperatures, design guidelines for bearing materials, oxidation-resistant coatings for high temperature applications, the control of friction in multi-pin electrical connectors, sliding behavior of bulk metallic glass and nanocomposite diamond-like carbon coatings and studies of combined impact with sliding. A non-contacting Kelvin probe is being used with complementary characterization techniques for both basic and applied research.

Selected Recent Presentations:

• Keynote speaker for Symposium on Atomistics of Friction and Its Application for Nanotechnology, Intl. Tribology Conf. (ITC), Kobe, Japan, 2005.
• D.A. Rigney, "Where the Action Is," invited plenary lecture at meeting of Wear Group of IRG-OECD, Portoroz, Slovenia, October 16-17, 2003 (focused on changes found near sliding interfaces).
• Invited Speaker, symposium honoring Ken Johnson, Austin, TX, 1999.
• Invited Speaker, Advanced Materials for the 21st Century: The 1999 Julia Weertman symposium, TMS, Cincinnati, OH, Oct., 1999.
• Invited lead-off speaker for MRS Symposium on 300th Anniversary of Amontons' Law, San Jose, CA, June 1999.
• Invited co-chair and lead-off speaker for International Symposium on Transfer Layer/Mechanically Mixed Layer, Hyderabad, India, Dec., 1998, (and editor of Procs. to be published in Wear).
• Invited lead-off speaker for Symposium on Wear of Engineering Materials, Materials Week, ASM/TMS, Indianapolis, Sept., 1997.
• Invited Speaker, Gordon Conference on Tribology, July, 1996.

Selected positions:

• Editor, proceedings International Conference of Wear Materials, (1997-)
• Chair, Tribology Gordon Research Conference (2000),
• Co-organizer of an international tribology symposium in Hyderabad, India (1998),
• Chair, International Conference on Wear of Materials, Orlando, Florida (1991),
• Guest professor, Mechanical Engineering,Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, March-Sept. (1991),
• Associate Director, Ohio State Center for Materials Research, 1989-2004,
• Coordinator of merger of the departments of Ceramic Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering at Ohio State to form the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 1988.
• Deputy Editor, Scripta Metallurica, 1975-1988

Fig.3 Results from MD simulations of a model crystalline system A (red atoms) sliding on another crystalline system B (blue atoms) at a relative velocity of 1.0 (Lennard-Jones units). These results are at t=1995. Figure shows formation of a mechanically mixed layer and a highly disordered zone at the sliding interface.
(click image for larger view, size 220K) Fig. 4 Results from MD simulations of a model crystalline system A sliding on another crystalline system B at a relative velocity of 1.0 (Lennard-Jones units). Upper figure is at time t=5, while lower figure is at t=1995. Color map represents vorticity. Velocity vector plots show  development of vortices at sliding interface.	(click image for larger view, size 220K) Fig. 5 Results from MD simulations of a model amorphous system A sliding on another amorphous system B at a relative velocity of 1.0 (Lennard-Jones units). Upper figure is at time t=5, while lower figure is at t=1995. Color map represents vorticity. Velocity vector plots show development of vortices at sliding interface, with more extensive delocalization of vorticity than for the crystalline case.