Abstract:
This study investigates the wear and chemical properties of several vegetable-based oils based on
different oleic content and compares them to a standard mineral base oil and inherent
chemistries. A ball-on-disk tribometer test was performed to analyse the tribological properties
of the oil under 50 N of applied load and at varying speeds. The functional groups of oils were
tested using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and viscosity was determined
using a rheometer. Bio-derived oils had a lower coefficient of friction (COF) than the standard
mineral base oil at different speeds. The presence of oleic acid in the vegetable oils helped to
reduce the friction between the surfaces as compared to that of the mineral base oil. The presence
of oleic content played a vital role during the wear analysis where high oleic content oil had
lower wear compared to other bio- based oils and the standard mineral base. Abrasion was
observed to be the dominant wear mechanism from the optical profilometer that included
grooves on all the surfaces of the disk samples. The results showed that high oleic content oil has
good potential to be an alternative to the standard mineral base oil. | 