Smooth Hertz contact
Build a smooth contact from scratch, inspect the pressure map and compare key outputs with the Hertz analytical solution.
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TriboSolver 3.1 · Standalone simulation
Understand your tribology problem
Explore contact, adhesion, temperature, lubrication and wear in a guided desktop workflow. Set your inputs, run a calculation and inspect the results—locally on your computer.
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Meet TriboSolver
From interacting surfaces to understandable results. Get a one-minute introduction to the tool, its capabilities and the workflow.
Read the video transcript
Tribology is the study of interacting surfaces: friction, lubrication and wear. TriboSolver brings numerical tribology calculations into a guided engineering workflow.
Explore dry contact, adhesion and electroadhesion, contact temperature, mixed lubrication, and wear. Study interacting surfaces within the assumptions of your chosen model.
Build a case step by step. Define materials, loading and geometry, then import surface measurements or generate a reproducible rough surface. No solver coding is required.
Inspect pressure maps, contact area and other outputs for your chosen model. Compare suitable reference solutions, check convergence, and export a report. Engineering decisions still require independent validation.
TriboSolver runs locally, with offline core calculations and licence checks. Start with a guided tutorial, request a fifteen-day trial, or choose a licence at tribology dot E U.
A guided calculation workflow
Choose a simulation family, define the contact and material inputs, then inspect maps and key results. Built for exploring tribology problems without writing solver code.
From surfaces to reports
Import supported surface data, including DATX, or generate a synthetic surface. Save projects and results locally and export calculation reports as PDF or DOCX.
Local calculations. Offline access.
Run core calculations and licence checks locally, even offline. Check the download page for the requirements of the currently available release.
Dry Contact
Explore contact pressure, real contact area and deformation. Supported workflows include rough surfaces, layered materials and subsurface stresses.
Contact Temperature
Examine frictional heating and the predicted temperature response of contacting bodies under your selected loading and sliding conditions.
Mixed Lubrication
Study full-film and mixed point or line contacts. Inspect lubricant film and load sharing using the supported contact and lubricant models.
Adhesion
Explore surface adhesion and electroadhesion within one simulation family, with independently selectable laws. Interpret forces within the assumptions of the selected model.
Wear
Explore Archard wear in supported workflows. Use application-specific wear coefficients and validate predictions against suitable reference data.
Seizure
Screen a configured thermal/adhesive threshold under the selected conditions. This model is not a universal prediction of seizure or component failure.
Our Partners
Learn by doing · TriboSolver 3.1
Start with a guided tutorial
Rough contact
Generate a reproducible rough surface, calculate the contact pressure and learn how to interpret and export the results.
Follow the tutorialResearch Applications
Explore how published research used TriboSolver and its earlier generations to investigate real contact problems. Each article explains the physical problem, model inputs, findings and limitations. Historical research is distinguished from capabilities and verification of the current release.
Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
How TriboSolver Helped Explain Roughness-Dependent Ice Friction
Why can one object slide easily on ice while another grips or scrapes? This application note examines a 2021 study that combined friction experiments with contact calculations to connect measured…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
How TriboSolver Helped Explain Capillary Adhesion and Friction
Polishing does not always reduce friction. In humid air, smoother surfaces can support larger regions of condensed water, creating an attractive force around the microscopic solid-contact spots. This application note…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
Running-In Wear: How TriboSolver Helped Interpret Changing Asperities
A new sliding contact changes as its highest asperities deform or wear away. This application note explains how a silicon carbide–silicon study connected measured surface changes with calculated pressure, real…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
Optical Contact Measurements: What TriboSolver Helped Compare and Calibrate
An optical contact image does not automatically reveal local pressure. This application note explains how a 2024 study combined a pressure-sensitive fluorescent probe with TriboSolver calculations for a rough polymer…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
Interfacial Shear Strength: How Contact Area Helps Explain Lubrication
Lower friction can reflect a smaller contact area or an interface that is easier to shear. This note explains how a polypropylene–glass study separated those possibilities using fluorescence measurements and…
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Conceptual illustration · Credit
Rough Fracture Flow: How Contact Mechanics Supplies the Missing Aperture Map
A rough fracture is a network of contacts and openings rather than a uniform water channel. This note explains how experiments on shaped Carrara marble surfaces were connected to a…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
Low-Voltage Electroadhesion: How Nanoscale Gaps Become Measurable Forces
Electrical attraction between rough surfaces depends strongly on the smallest gaps around their contact patches. This note explains how a silicon-contact study combined a TriboSolver mechanical gap field with a…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
Ceramic Roughness and Wear: What a Contact-Pressure Calculation Adds
Surface roughness can change wear much more strongly than it changes friction. This note examines a ceramic-bead and alumina comparison in which TriboSolver supplied contact-pressure estimates for three surface finishes.…
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Figure from the cited paper · CC BY 4.0 · Credit
Tribofilm Growth: How Contact Stress and Film Removal Work Together
Protective tribofilms can grow and wear at the same time. This note explains a historical model that combined layered contact mechanics with stress-activated chemical growth and film removal. Comparisons covered…
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