Effect of oil-based drilling fluid on the evolution of friction interface: A reactive molecular dynamics study at different temperatures

Abstract

Oil-based drilling fluids (OBDF) have good lubricating properties and are indispensable in oil drilling engineering. Temperature significantly affects the lubricity performance of OBDF, but the effect's mechanism is unclear. In this paper, the tribological properties of OBDF were investigated under three different temperature environments. Its flow ability and interfacial wear were explored using reactive molecular dynamics. Studies have shown that the flow of OBDF becomes unstable with increasing temperature, leading to a higher degree of frictional fluctuation. The wear regions at the friction interface increase with increasing temperature, and OBDF inhibits the transformation of the body-centered cubic lattice to an amorphous structure, thereby reducing wear.