General presentation
A scientific approach to surfaces and surface treatments. Introduction

Many of the useful properties of materials are related to their surface: appearance, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, thermal fatigue resistance, bonding properties, friction properties... (figure 1 ).

The aim of all the chapters dealing with this subject, based on the different types of surface and in a scientific and technological spirit, is :

• define the main characteristics of a surface;

• briefly describe its determination and quantification methods;

• then to introduce the...