Investigation of Tribological Properties of Lubricating Gear Oil With Abrasive Nano Additives

Abstract

Purpose: Lubricants prepared with metal oxide nanoparticle additives are found to have better tribological properties. In this work the widely used commercial SN lubricating oil is added with Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2 nanoparticle and the tribological characteristics are studied. Wear tests were conducted on plain oil and oil with nanosized Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2 additives using a four ball tribo-tester.

Design/methodology/approach: The wear images of the ball specimens were analyzed using confocal microscope to measure the topography of the wear parameters such as wear scar diameter, depth of wear, angle of the wear.

Findings: It is found that the gear oil with silica nanoparticles is found to have improved properties. Results show a considerable reduction in the values of wear scar diameter, wear angle and wear depth for the gear oil added with Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2 nanoparticles of 0.4 wt. %.

Originality/value: In the work carried out, a new innovative technological approach to analyze the tribological properties of lubricating oil by finding the wear scar diameter, wear angle and wear depth is reported