Effect of lubricant ageing on lubricants’ physical and chemical properties and tribological performance; Part I: effect of lubricant chemistry
Abstract
Purpose
Ageing has been known to affect the performance of lubricants. However, there is a lot of debate as to whether ageing is beneficial or detrimental to the wear performance of lubricants.
Design/methodology/approach
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of ageing on the viscosity, total acid number and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy information of a series of lubricants. The tribological performance (friction and wear) of the aged lubricants is also studied, followed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis on the selected post-test samples to study the tribochemical features of the tribofilm.
Findings
The results show that ageing has a different impact on lubricants and tribological performances based on the physical and chemical properties.
Originality/value
These findings will be compared with the research on the role of water in lubricant ageing (Part II of this study).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Alexander De Vries, Director of Group Product Development, SKF (the Netherlands) and the Key Research Projects of Henan Higher Education Institutions 18A460031 for their financial support and permission to publish this work.
Citation
Cen, H., Morina, A. and Neville, A. (2018), "Effect of lubricant ageing on lubricants’ physical and chemical properties and tribological performance; Part I: effect of lubricant chemistry", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 70 No. 2, pp. 385-392. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILT-03-2017-0059
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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