Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Bio/Materials Tribology Laboratory
Led by Alison C. Dunn · Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
What we study
This lab studies friction and wear on soft, wet materials like hydrogels, the stuff of contact lenses and artificial joints. It also studies how a click beetle's latch stores and releases energy, and how friction affects needle insertion.
What working here is like
- Building & testing
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 3
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
The Interrelationship Between Friction and Fracture in Needle Insertion
Measures sliding friction and material fracture during needle insertion into soft materials, to see how they affect each other and help evaluate new needle designs.
Origins of Friction of Water-Hydrated Gels
Tests hydrogels made with different water content or chemistry to find where their low friction comes from, using polymer physics and mechanics.
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Conformal Frictional Latches
Studies the frictional latch that lets a click beetle snap quickly, aiming at bio-inspired mechanisms that deploy light structures fast.
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Interfacial Friction and Latch Geometry Govern Slip Initiation in a Click Beetle-Inspired Frictional Latch System
2026 · Tribology Letters
- The Surface-Topography Challenge: A Multi-Laboratory Benchmark Study to Advance the Characterization of Topography
2025 · Tribology Letters
Compares different metrology techniques to measure surface topography across multiple scales.
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- Continuous Visualization of Time-Dependent Deformation of a Hydrogel Surface
2025 · Experimental Mechanics
- Adhesion Mechanics and Detachment Dynamics of Vanishing Surface Layers on Hydrogels
2024 · Langmuir
Measures how soft hydrogel surfaces behave under force using nanoindentation experiments.
- Design and laboratory evaluation of spring washers as railway baseplate hold-down method to mitigate spike failures
2024 · Engineering Failure Analysis
Tests spring washers as a way to prevent rail spikes from failing in timber tracks.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
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