Industrial Lubricants Research Articles

Evaluation of the influence of compositional variables on the viscosity of industrial lubricants

Evaluation of the influence of compositional variables on the viscosity of industrial lubricants

Experimental investigation and process simulation of biolubricant production from waste cooking oil

Waste cooking oil (WCO) or frying oil was used for synthesis of biolubricant via transesterification reaction. Biolubricant (dioleoyl ethylene glycol ester) was prepared from fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of WCO with ethylene glycol (EG). The reaction was performed using calcium oxide (CaO) heterogeneous catalyst. Dioleoyl ethylene glycol ester is a potential biodegradable lubricant that could be used in industrial lubricant applications. The effect of changing operating conditions such as temperature, molar ratio of reactants, reaction time and catalyst loading was studied. The optimal conditions that achieved highest conversion were found to be 130 °C, 3.5: 1, 1.5 h and 1.2% (w/w) catalyst dosage. The produced biolubricant structure was tested using FTIR spectrum technique and its thermal stability was examined using TGA technique. The biolubricant properties were compared to two other biolubricants and also to specifications of four different ISO viscosity grade lubricants. It was found that produced biolubricant complies with ISO VG68 viscosity grade with better low temperature applicability. The process simulation was performed on Aspen HYSYS program version 9 using conversion reactor model and using Non-Random Two-Liquid (NRTL) activity coefficient model. Simulation results proved that the studied biolubricant production process is industrially applicable.

Site suitability analysis incorporating disease prediction in castor (Ricinus communis L.) production

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is an important industrial crop used in the production of nylon, cosmetics, and many industrial lubricants. Currently, castor production in the USA has nearly ceased for > 45 years, resulting in vast imports of castor oil to meet US demands. Renewed interest in this crop, especially the possibility of its use as a biolubricant, has increased the desire to learn more about where it can be produced. This study evaluated possible locations for castor production through site suitability analysis. This analysis determined potential sites for castor production by evaluating geospatial climatic, soils/geophysical, and disease data, the major drivers of castor growth and yields. The site suitability analysis determined that 12% of the contiguous USA is highly suitable for castor production. The state of Illinois has the highest percentage of arable land highly suitable for castor production (56%/8 million ha). However, due to its large size, Texas has the most land area highly suitable for castor production (~ 15 million ha). Validation of the site suitability analysis was obtained through ground-truthed data obtained from recent environmental studies testing various castor genotypes. For the southern USA (< 40◦ N latitude), the regression analysis interested in site suitability point data versus performance (oil yield) at known growing sites resulted in a significant result (R2 = 0.46, p < 0.01). Geospatial averaging site suitability values for 1-km buffer of those growing sites further improved regression analysis (R2 = 0.57, p < 0.01). T he findings of this study provide a method to perform site suitability for novel crops such as castor using data associated with agronomic and disease characteristics. Moreover, the analysis provides suggestion that castor could easily be reintroduced to US agricultural practices.

Lubrication effects on axisymmetric flow of a micropolar fluid by a spiraling disk

Advances in modern technology and extremely stringent demands for rotating elements of machines impose researchers on the need for the continuous development of improved lubricants to ensure the stability, safe operation, and reliability of various bearings. For operations at high speed and heavy load, modern bearings use lubricants containing high molecular weight polymer components. Such lubricants exhibit non-Newtonian rheological behavior. Power-law lubricant is widely used for the bearings and the industrial lubrication processes. This article is established to estimate the power-law lubrication effects on the Homann flow of a micropolar fluid past a disk with the spiraling motion. A lubrication layer of a non-Newtonian power-law lubricant with negligible thickness is applied between the disk rough surface and the bulk fluid. A new and very complex interfacial boundary condition is derived for the lubricated spiraling disk and is utilized to explore the impact of different flow parameters on the fluid velocity as well as the microrotation. Numerical results are computed for some quantities of physical interest, i.e., radial, azimuthal skin friction coefficients, and the wall shear stress are calculated for various values of the spiral angle, disk spiraling parameter, material parameter, and slip parameter. The addition of slip assists the radial velocity and opposes the azimuthal velocity. The radial velocity is enhanced by increasing the disk spiraling and spiral angle.

Simulation of thermo-hydrodynamic behavior of journal bearings, lubricating with commercial oils of different performance

This paper tries to display complete thermo-hydrodynamic research in journal bearings, investigating the growing pressure and temperature rise inside the bearing during operation. The narrow and infinitely long bearings are extensively investigated including analytical solutions either for plain journal bearing, or journal bearing with an axial groove. In narrow bearing approximation, the temperature distribution inside the bearing is also demonstrated. As concerns the finite bearing, it is simulated using the Computational Fluid Dynamis (CFD) algorithm. It is worth noting that the heating effects that are included in this simulation assuming variable viscosity, as well as the bearing, are examined both with industrial lubricants and environmentally friendly oils. One of the most major findings is that, concerning the AWS-100, results in higher temperature values in all examined cases and a more variable temperature distribution at the oil film-bush interface, especially under the assumption of adiabatic bearing. Furthermore, the use of ISO VG 32 leads to a more uniform temperature distribution in the circumferential direction at the film-bush interface.

A study of grease lubricants under wind turbine pitch bearing conditions

Pitch bearings in wind turbines are affected by reciprocating motion due to pitch control. The combination of oscillating operation, high loads, and mixed lubrication often leads to wear. Grease lubricants in wind turbine pitch bearings should be designed to avoid such wear. Due to different available grease lubricants, the anti-wear properties are investigated under downscaled wind turbine pitch bearing conditions. The downscaling is accomplished by load simulation for a pitch bearing and analysis of the pitch movements for a 7.5 MW reference turbine. The operational conditions of the four point contact ball bearing with 5 m outer diameter are scaled to angular contact ball bearings of the size 7208. The investigations are concluded with contact model experiments. Six Industrial grease lubricants for wind turbine pitch bearings are tested that follow very different compositions. The investigations reveal, that none of the tested grease lubricants was able to reduce wear for all tested conditions. After 250000 cycles certain conditions lead to severe wear. Therefore, the pitch controller should avoid such conditions if possible. Nevertheless, grease lubricants with low base oil viscosities and high bleeding rates are best on average for the tested conditions. Furthermore, the results of the bearing experiments are comparable to the model experiments.

Evaluation of date seed (Phoenix dactylifera L.) oil as crop base stock for environment friendly industrial lubricants

Growing environmental concern and rapid consumption of poor biodegradable mineral oils have triggered the need for the development of eco-friendly biodegradable bio-based oils with low toxicity and excellent lubricating performance. The study aims to produce and evaluate the performance of date seed (Phoenix dactylifera L.) oil, which is abundantly available in the Middle East region, as an alternative bio-based lubricant. The optimum date seed oil (DSO) yield of 6% was achieved using solvent extraction of date seeds with particle size of 1 mm, hexane solvent to seed ratio of 6:1, and processing time of 18 hours. The physicochemical properties of the DSO were found such as its clear yellow color, density of 0.907 g/cm3, iodine value of 13.28 gl2/100 g, saponification value of 162.5 mg KOH/g, and acid value of 1.4 mg KOH/g. Moreover, fatty acid composition was analyzed employing quantitative gas chromatography (GC), and the oleic acid (41.1%), linoleic acid (21.4%), and palmitic acid (11.3%) were found to be the major unsaturated fatty acids. The pour and flash points were around -10 °C and 140 °C, respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the produced DSO is thermally stable at up to 300 °C. The rheological properties such as viscosity (41.62 cSt at 40 °C and 8.13 cSt at 100 °C) and viscosity index 173 were also assessed. These properties along with tribological properties of the DSO were compared with other bio-based oils and commercial SAE20W40 mineral oil. Overall, the characteristics of the DSO showed good potential to be developed into a bio-based lubricant. Furthermore, its properties can be enhanced by adding suitable additives. The findings of this study will help in developing eco-friendly bio-based industrial lubricants.

Chemical and rheological assessment of produced biolubricants from different vegetable oils

Environment-friendly ethylene glycol di-esters (EGDEs) as, biolubricants were produced from different vegetable oils by applying CaO as a heterogeneous base catalyst through transesterification of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and ethylene glycol (EG). The feedstocks used were sunflower, soybean, jatropha, and waste cooking oils. The molar ratio of FAMEs to EG was 2:1, catalyst dose (1.2% w/w), and temperature 150 °C for 2 h reaction time; under vacuum were the transesterification conditions. The produced biolubricants were identified using FTIR technique. The thermal stability of each produced biolubricants was examined using TGA technique. The viscosity indexes of the produced EGDEs were calculated and their values exceeded 140 for waste oil to 311 for Jatropha oil. The rheology characteristics, that define the nature of the produced biolubricants, were determined. This study proved that the production of different biolubricants having suitable chemical and rheological properties fitted to be used as commercialized industrial lubricants.

Cottonseed Trimethylolpropane TMP Ester as Lubricant and Performance Characteristics for Diesel Engine

Many researchers have been working on bio-based lubricant which is complete or partial replacement for mineralbased lubricant. Mineral-based lubricant is highly pollutant and possesses environmental threat as it is not biodegradable, in the initial days of the industrial revolution bio-based lubricants were widely used, later it was replaced by more sustainable and easily available but environmental polluting mineral oils, currently due to environmental concerns and scarcity of mineral oils, bio-based lubricant has gained importance. Bio-based lubricants are now a day’s used for various applications such as transformer oil and processes where there is complete loss of lubricants. They possess very good properties in such applications, whereas bio-based lubricants are also used internal combustion engines, pure biobased lubricant may not be suitable for long-duration, but genetically and chemically modified bio-based lubricants will be suitable for IC engine. Though bio-based lubricant possesses many good properties as a lubricant for IC engine and various other application, it is still at large to become commercial, more study is required for checking performance of such pure and modified bio-based lubricants oils, in this paper such study of cotton seed Trimethylolpropane (TMP) ester oil and its effects on performance of brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake thermal efficiency (BTh) and emission of gases like hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2 ) nitrogen oxides (NOx ) are studied, bio-based have poor cold flow properties and oxidation stability to improve these additives are added. The experimental study shows that Cottonseed Trimethylolpropane Ester (CSTE) displays similar characteristics of thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption and emission of gases as compared to mineralbased lubricating oil hence can be used in the IC engine instead of mineral-based lubricants.

Viscosity Prediction of Lubricants by a General Feed-Forward Neural Network.

Modern industrial lubricants are often blended with an assortment of chemical additives to improve the performance of the base stock. Machine learning-based predictive models allow fast and veracious derivation of material properties and facilitate novel and innovative material designs. In this study, we outline the design and training process of a general feed-forward artificial neural network that accurately predicts the dynamic viscosity of oil-based lubricant formulations. The network hyperparameters are systematically optimized by Bayesian optimization, and strongly correlated/collinear features are trimmed from the model. By harnessing domain knowledge in the selection of features, the quantitative structure-property relationship model is built with a relatively simple feature set and is versatile in predicting the dynamic viscosity of lubricant oils with and without enhancement by viscosity modifiers (VMs). Moreover, partial dependency, local-interpretable model-agnostic explanations, and Shapley values consistently show that the eccentricity index, Crippen MR, and Petitjean number are important predictors of viscosity. All in all, the neural model is reasonably accurate in predicting the dynamic viscosity of lubricant solvents and VM-enhanced lubricants with an R2 of 0.980 and 0.963, respectively.

Temperature Dependent Friction Modelling: The Influence of Temperature on Product Quality

In the stamping of industrial parts, friction and lubrication play a key role in achieving high quality products and reducing scrap. Especially in the start-up phase of new production runs, transient effects can have a significant impact on the product quality. Before a steady-state production run is established, heating up of tools influence tribological conditions. This influences the performance of the forming operation and, consequently, the quality of the formed product. In the development process of new industrial parts, it is therefore crucial to accurately account for these transient effects in sheet metal forming simulations. This paper presents the modeling of the frictional behavior of two tribological systems as developed within the ASPECT project. The first tribology systems consist of a stainless steel with corresponding drawing oil and tool material. The sheet material of the second tribology system is a hot dip galvanized bake hardened steel. Subsequently, it is shown how temperature affects the frictional behavior of these tribology systems. Finally, generated friction models have been applied to a spare wheel well of Opel. The spare wheel well is modelled using a generally applicable approach to account for transient effects under industrial sheet metal forming process conditions. For varying temperature and tribological conditions, the spare wheel well can show cracks and differences in thinning and draw-in. This emphasizes the strong influence of transient effects on both part quality and the overall production stability.

Tribological Study of Vegetable Oil Based Lubricants - A Review

Lubricants have a very crucial role in machinery industry for friction reduction and wear reduction between two relatively moving parts. The current study enlightens the works from various authors on evaluating the tribological behavior of environment friendly vegetable based oils as emerging biodegradable lubricants. The influences of the vegetable oils on friction and wear performance using different Tribometers were reported. The review focuses efforts on the development and commercialization of these vegetable based oils as industrial lubricants for manufacturing industries, mainly, metal forming and metal cutting. The review reveals that, many vegetable oils can be used as industrial lubricant, due to their exemplary attributes in terms of friction and wear reduction, which would help to decrease the universal demand of commercial lubricants which are based on petroleum resources to a great extent.

Evaluation of lubricant properties of vegetable oils as base oil for industrial lubricant

The possible insufficiency of oil resources in the future and the poor bio-degradability of mineral oil based lubricant resulted in the need of bio lubricant. Bio-based products are typically produced from vegetable oils. For the present study rice bran oil [RBO], jatropha oil [JO] and karanja oil [KO] are selected as the base oils for the industrial lubricant. Friction and wear characteristics are evaluated on four ball tester and the initial findings show that wear scar of RBO is lowest, this is because of the presence of natural anti-oxidants like gamma oryzanol. The coefficient of friction and wear of all the oils were evaluated as per ASTM D5183 and ASTMD 4172 respectively. Viscosity of the oils are tested on Brookfield rheometer and KO is having high viscosity when compared to other two oils but the change in viscosity with temperature is low for both RBO and JO. Chemical properties of the oils are conducted as per IS: 548 (Part 1) –1964. The iodine value for KO is less when compared to RBO and JO. Less iodine value is required to impart better oxidation stability. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that RBO is stable till 320 °C and KO, JO started degrading at 200 °C. The thermal properties of all the oils are measured and RBO has shown better properties at wide range of temperatures. The disadvantages of vegetable oils like oxidative stability need to be improved by adding additives and by chemical modifications.

Comparing the effect of price and the effect of brand on industrial lubricants customers’ buying choice

Abstract: The present research was conducted to compare the effects of price and brand on the industrial lubricants’ customers’ buying choice. To this end, 106 industrial lubricants buyer organizations in Tehran, Iran were selected as the population of the research. The sample size was equal to the population due to the accessible and limited number of the organizations. The data were collected using a questionnaire comprising 58 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined and confirmed using Cronbach Alpha and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. In total, 74 usable questionnaires were received for data analysis. The results indicated the significant effects of brand and price on buying choice. Further, the effect of perceived quality on buying choice was significant, but far less significant compared to that of price or brand. The effects from customer information on buying choice of industrial lubricants customers was not significant.

Performance evaluation of hazelnut oil with copper nanoparticles - a new entrant for sustainable lubrication

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the friction and wear performance of Hazelnut oil with copper (Cu) nano additives.Design/methodology/approachThe experiments were performed on a pin-on-disc tribometer in boundary and mixed lubrication regimes. Copper nanoparticles were added in 0.5 and 1 Wt.% concentrations and corresponding Stribeck curves were generated with a base oil and with oil containing Cu nanoparticles. Surface analysis of aluminium 6061 pins was conducted using an optical microscope, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectroscopy.FindingsThe lubricant with 0.5 Wt.% Cu nanoparticles exhibited better results. An improvement of around 80 per cent in coefficient of friction and around 99 per cent in specific wear rate was observed. The film formation capability of the Cu nanoparticles led to an overall improvement in tribological properties of the base oil.OriginalityExperiments were performed to evaluate the tribological performance of a new lubricant (Hazelnut oil) using Cu nanoparticles. The results obtained herein suggest that Hazelnut oil has a great potential to replace the conventional mineral oils in the field of industrial lubrication.

Toxicity drives facilitation between 4 bacterial species

Competition between microbes is extremely common, with many investing in mechanisms to harm other strains and species. Yet positive interactions between species have also been documented. What makes species help or harm each other is currently unclear. Here, we studied the interactions between 4 bacterial species capable of degrading metal working fluids (MWF), an industrial coolant and lubricant, which contains growth substrates as well as toxic biocides. We were surprised to find only positive or neutral interactions between the 4 species. Using mathematical modeling and further experiments, we show that positive interactions in this community were likely due to the toxicity of MWF, whereby each species' detoxification benefited the others by facilitating their survival, such that they could grow and degrade MWF better when together. The addition of nutrients, the reduction of toxicity, or the addition of more species instead resulted in competitive behavior. Our work provides support to the stress gradient hypothesis by showing how harsh, toxic environments can strongly favor facilitation between microbial species and mask underlying competitive interactions.

Geosorbent Based on the Combination of Kuznetsk-Basin Coal Fly Ssh With Various Kinds of Lignin

Annually coal-fired heat-and-power plants produce up to 40 million tons of ash and slag in Russia, while the already accumulated in the ash-dumps waste exceeds 1.5 billion tons. In Russia alone heat power plants’ ash-dumps occupy over 20 thousand km2 of land area. Ash and slag waste reclamation volume in Russia doesn’t exceed 6 % of of their annual accumulation (annually only 1.5-2.1 million tons are recycled), while other countries recycle 50-100 % of ash and slag waste. Russia’s main coal-mining region is the Kuznetsk coal basin. The importance of the suggested fly ash geosorbent technology is in the fact that its use will make it possible to recycle and reclaim the already accumulated ash and slag waste, but the newly produced waste as well. Thus, the objective of the project in question is the study of the use of heat power plant fly ash as a gas-adsorbing agent in the chemical industry, and as a means to extract industrial oils and lubricants out of waste water.

Investigation of the tribological properties of ultrafine diamond-graphite powder as an additive to greases

The paper presents the results of studies on the use of plastic lubricants with ultrafine diamond-graphite powder in rolling bearings. Under operating conditions, even with a short-term toughening of the operation mode, it is possible to establish the boundary mode of friction due to the extrusion of lubricant from the zone of the rolling elements contact with the tracks of the rings. This leads to an increase in friction torque and an increase in temperature, which affects the performance of rolling bearings. Reducing slippage, lowering the working temperature, limiting the friction torque can be achieved due to the quality of the lubricants used with improved anti-wear and antifriction properties. Tribological studies have established that the introduction of ultrafine diamond-graphite powder into the composition of basic industrial lubricants significantly improves their performance. The introduction of ultrafine diamond-graphite powder into a lubricant reduces the amount of rolling bearings wear 1.6–1.8 times, the friction torque - to 23–25 %. The temperature of the bearing assembly decreases by 16–20 %. The presence of a lubricant that can significantly reduce friction forces. It reduces the amount of internal stresses and retards the development of fatigue cracks, which can increase the service life of rolling bearings 1.5–2 times.

The use of greases with ultrafine diamond-graphite powder to reduce a fatigue wear of rolling bearings

The present paper shows the results of studies on the use of the plastic lubricants with ultrafine diamond-graphite powder in rolling bearings. Even with a short-term tightening of the operating mode, it is possible to establish a friction boundary mode by squeezing the lubricant out of the rolling parts contact zone with the ring tracks, which leads to an increase in the friction torque and temperature. Reducing slippage, lowering the working temperature, limiting the friction torque can be achieved by improving the antiwear and anti-friction properties of the lubricants used. Tribological studies have established that the introduction of the ultrafine diamond-graphite powder into the composition of basic industrial lubricants significantly improves their performance. The introduction of ultrafine diamond-graphite powder into a lubricant reduces the amount of rolling bearings wear up to 1.6–1.8 times, reduces the amount of friction torque to 23–25%. The presence of a lubricant that can significantly reduce friction forces, reduces the amount of internal stresses and delays the fatigue cracks progress, which allows to increase the service life of rolling bearings by 1.5–2 times.

Friction and Wear Behavior of Environmentally Friendly Ionic Liquids for Sustainability of Biolubricants

The sustainability of biolubricants as green alternatives for industrial and machinery lubrication is questionable due to their unreliable oxidative stability, high pour point, and easy accumulation of contaminants that affect their tribological performance. Bio-based ionic liquid (IL) lubricants, which are environmentally friendly liquid state salts, have overcome these concerns related to conventional biolubricants. The present study investigates the effect of varying cation–anion moieties in ILs to understand their tribological performance and industrial viability. The industrial viability was analyzed by scaling their friction and wear behaviors against conventional biolubricants, and petroleum-based oils. The study investigated both bio- and nonbio-based ILs. Among the ILs examined, P666,14Saccharinate, P666,14Salicyate, and P666,14Benzoate were found to have superior tribological properties. The presence of large alkyl cation chain length and large aromatic anion ring size in ILs can effectively reduce friction and wear. This study details the mechanism by which the structural combinations of anion and cation in ILs define the tribological behavior of the bulk IL. Additionally, this study also highlights the environmentally benign nature of IL lubricants for possible industrial applications.