Dr Morris is a Chartered Engineer and Senior Lecturer with extensive experience conducting industry critical research in the areas of powertrain dynamics and tribology. He has over 12 years experience creating and conducting tribo-dynamic simulations and experiments to provide the insight necessary to mitigate a host of efficiency, wear and NVH related issues.
He became a Lecturer in 2016 and a Senior Lecturer in 2019 before which he had conducted his post-doctoral research as part of the Lloyds Registry International Institute for Cavitation Research. He has published 66 publications, including 36 journal papers and he has supervised many directly industry-funded research and consultancy projects including successful supervision of 10 doctoral and Post-doctoral researchers.
Dr Morris is a member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology Tribology Executive Committee and is on the Editorial board of the Journal Lubricants.
He has specialist expertise in bearing hydrodynamics and elastohydrodynamic's; experimental tribology; clutch and friction disc tribo-dynamics; mixed regime lubrication; surface texturing; experimental wear inspection and analysis including electrical discharge in bearings; reciprocating and rotary ICE tribology; atomic force microscopy; lubricant additives.
Dr Nicholas Morris is part of the Tribology and Dynamics research group and currently manages multiple research projects in collaboration with various industrial partners. His areas of active research include:
- Component wear and tribological failure analysis
- Gear wear analysis
- Bearing failure analysis
- Bearing electrical discharge erosion
- Representative bench top wear testing
- Wet clutch surface temperature models
- CV joint wear modelling
- Palliation noise vibration and harshness
- Friction disc dynamics
- Improvement of powertrain efficiency
- Laser surface texturing
- Wet brake and clutch hydrodynamics
- Piston cylinder system friction reduction
- Wankel engine seal matrix tribology
- Atomic force microscopy for coating and lubricant additive synergies
- Coating lubricant additive synergies
Other areas of interest:
- Surface roughness measurement (insitu/exsitu)
- Radial lip seal leakage simulation
Dr Morris has collaborated with numerous research partners including Aston Martin Lagonda, AVL, BP Castrol, Capricorn Automotive, Colherne, Concentric, Denso (Japan), Diamond Light Source, ES Technology, Ford, JCB, Manufacturing Technology Centre, Neapco, Nexcel, Pera Technology, Prodrive, Ricardo and Victrex.
External activities and affiliations
- Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering
- Chartered Engineer (CEng)
- Member of EPSRC Peer Review College
- IET Tribology Executive Committee member
- Editorial board member MPDI Lubricants
Dr Morris is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and his current teaching responsibilities include:
- WSC500 – 3rd year Major Individual Project
- WSC504 – Applied Engineering Design Analysis
- WSC107 – Contact Mechanics: Tribology
- WSC105 – Kinematics and Dynamics of Machinery
- WSI001 – DIS Industrial Placement
Current administrative responsibilities
- Admissions Tutor for Mechanical Engineering
Dr Morris has collaborated with numerous research partners including:
Aston Martin Lagonda, AVL, BP Castrol, Capricorn Automotive, Colherne, Concentric, Denso (Japan), Diamond Light Source, ES Technology, Ford, JCB, Manufacturing Technology Centre, Neapco, Nexcel, Pera Technology, Gibson Technology, Prodrive, Ricardo and Victrex.