Torque loss and wear of FZG gears lubricated with wind turbine gear oils using an ionic liquid as additive

Abstract

This work presents a study of the tribological behavior of a mineral fully-formulated wind turbine gear oil additised with [BMP][NTf2] ionic liquid. The target application is the wind turbine gearboxes, thus the fully formulated oil with and without ionic liquid additive was tested in a rolling bearings test rig to measure the thrust rolling bearing torque loss and was also tested in a FZG gear test rig to measure the gears torque loss at operating conditions similar to the observed in a wind turbine gearbox.The results show that a wind turbine gear oil additised with ionic liquid can reduce the torque loss and improve the gearbox efficiency while producing less wear particles as observed in the oil analysis.