Effect of Castor oil as Biolubricant on Tribological Characteristics of EN31 Steel Experimentation and Validation

Abstract

The main aim of this study to investigate the effect of castor oil blended with lube oil (SAE20W40), on Tribological characteristics of bearing material (EN31), using Ball on Disk Tribotester. The disc test material was EN31 Steel, 165 mm diameter and Test ball material was EN31 Steel, 10 mm Diameter. The test was performed at temperature of 45oC with different loads and different rotating speeds(Test duration of 3600 sec.).The test was conducted in wet conditions using the ASTM G99 Wear and Friction test procedure. Experiments were conducted based on the plan of experiments generated through Taguchi's technique. A L16 Orthogonal array was selected for analysis of data. The petroleum based lubricant used for this experiment was SAE 20W40 and contaminated with a various blends like 0% 10%, 20%, 30% of castor oil. The lubricant is characterized by viscosity using viscometer. From the experimental result, it is found that the wear is increased with increase in loads, increased in speed and sliding distance. The overall result of this experiment reveals that the wear for various blending percentage were different, moreover the wear for 10% castor oil blending were almost identical with base lubricant. This blend can be used as lubricant for piston pump application, which is environmental friendly in nature and would help to reduce use of petroleum based lubricants substantially.