John Frederick Archard (1918–1989) was a British engineer known for his wear studies.

Career

Archard went to the Worthing High School for Boys before he entered the University College of Southampton. Afterwards, he served six years in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF), including at the headquarters of

Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

. As a member of the RAF radar staff, he also made a trip to Washington. In 1946, he returned to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

for postgraduate research in

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...

. Starting in 1949 he worked in the surface physics section of the

Associated Electrical Industries Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of British Thomson-Houston (BTH) and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies. In 1967 AEI was acquired by GEC, to create the UK ...

Research Laboratory, where he investigated the

lubrication Lubrication is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and wear and tear in a contact between two surfaces. The study of lubrication is a discipline in the field of tribology. Lubrication mechanisms such as fluid-lubr ...

of heavily loaded contacts. In the 1950s he developed an analytical model used to describe

abrasive wear Wear is the damaging, gradual removal or deformation of material at solid surfaces. Causes of wear can be mechanical (e.g., erosion) or chemical (e.g., corrosion). The study of wear and related processes is referred to as tribology. Wear in m ...

based on the theory of contact of

asperities In materials science, asperity, defined as "unevenness of surface, roughness, ruggedness" (from the Latin ''asper''—"rough"), has implications (for example) in physics and seismology. Smooth surfaces, even those polished to a mirror finish, ar ...

, which became known in the literature as ''wear equation'' or ''

Archard equation The Archard wear equation is a simple model used to describe sliding wear and is based on the theory of Asperity (materials science), asperity contact. The Archard equation was developed much later than (sometimes also known as energy dissipativ ...

''. Archard was a reader at

Leicester University The University of Leicester ( ) is a public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, University College, Leicester, gained university ...

until his retirement in the early 1980s. He ran a successful experimental

tribology Tribology is the science and engineering of understanding friction, lubrication and wear phenomena for interacting surfaces in relative Motion (physics), motion. It is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on many academic fields, including physics, c ...

research program. He was a Fellow of the Physical Society and of the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based not-for-profit learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, physics research, research and applied physics, application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide ...

. In 1989 he received the '' Mayo D. Hersey Award'' for his scientific contributions in the field of tribology.

Private life

Archard lived in

Tilehurst Tilehurst is a village on the western outskirts of the town of Reading, Berkshire, Reading in the county of Berkshire, England. It extends from the River Thames in the north to the A4 road (England), A4 road in the south. The village is partl ...

, was married and had two sons.

References

1918 births 1989 deaths 20th-century British engineers English mechanical engineers Tribologists People educated at Worthing High School {{UK-engineer-stub

Career

Private life

See also

References