Wear Properties of Stainless Steel Lubricated by Cerbera and Rubber Seeds Methyl Esters under Boundary Lubrication Condition

Abstract

The use of biodiesel fuel converted from vegetable-based oil are continuously increasing due sustainability and environment concerns. It is important to increase the portion of converted fuel from non-edible sources to reduce the use of food stock. In this study, the tribological properties of stainless-steel material was investigated when lubricated by two kinds of methyl esters converted from non-edible vegetable oils, i.e. Cerbera oil and Rubber seeds oil. The friction and wear were investigated by using a ball-on-disk tribometer at severe friction condition. The results show that the wear of material lubricated by both methyl esters was much smaller than that lubricated by petrol diesel fuel. At temperature of 27°C, the worn area on the ball specimens for the case of Cerbera and Rubber seeds methyl esters were 0.396 mm2 and 0.391 mm2 compared to 3.642 mm2 for the case of petroleum diesel fuel. At 80°C, they were 0.410 mm2 and 0.429 mm2 compared to 4.152 mm2 for the case of petroleum diesel fuel. This shows that both Cerbera and Rubber seeds methyl esters has a good tribological properties comparable to other methyl esters sources used for mineral diesel fuel substitute.