Improvement of Tribological and Thermal Properties of Engine Lubricant by using Nanoparticle Additives

Author(s): P. Sivakumar, T. Senthilkumar, A. Rajan

Abstract: Wear is the progressive loss of the material from the operating surface of machine due to relative motion between surfaces. The successful design of machine elements depends upon essentially on the understanding tribological principles like wear and friction. The lubricating oils are the blood of the machine’s operation, and the service life and economic effectiveness of the machine are relative to the quality, performance and reasonable use of the oils. One of the methods to improve the property of the oil is adding a suitable additive. In recent days’ nanomaterials are emerged as a lubricant additive which increases the tribological and thermal property of the lubricant oil. In this study, the tribological and thermal properties of Cerium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles suspended in the engine lubricant oil are investigated experimentally. SAE 20 W40 oil is used as base oil in which Ce doped zinc oxide nanoparticle of size 31 nm at 0.1%wt concentration are dispersed. The Ultrasonic Bath is used to disperse the nano particles in the base oil. The frictional force and wear rate are measured using the Pin-On-Disk apparatus. The results show that frictional force when using the Ce doped zinc Oxide nanolubricant at 0.1% was reduced by 15.5% comparing with the base oil respectively. The wear rate is also reduced when using the nanolubricants. In addition to the tribological properties, the thermal property like Thermal Conductivity is also measured for the nanolubricants. The results showed that the thermal conductivity was increased about 2.0% using Ce doped zinc oxide nanolubricant. The results indicate that the Ce doped zinc oxide nano particles improve the tribological and thermal properties of the lubricant oil.