Experimental analysis of the efficacy of vegetable oil-based nanolubricants for improving journal-bearing performance

Abstract

The present experimental study explores the performance of Hydrodynamic journal bearings operating with vegetable oil-based nanolubricants. For this study, titanium oxide nanoparticles have been added to canola oil by varying the volume fraction from 0% to 0.04%. An assessment of performance characteristics has been done by using a journal-bearing test rig under different operating conditions. The outcome of the experimental results aimed at the addition of nanoparticles to base lubricants to improve the performance was observed to be favorable. However, under high operating conditions, the influence of nanoparticles is observed to be less useful. The fluid film pressure of nanolubricants increased up to a specific volume concentration of titanium oxide nanoparticles (i.e. 0.02%) beyond which no further enhancement was observed. At a load of 3000 N, the fluid film pressure increased up to 10%, when a bearing is lubricated using canola oil with a 0.02% volume fraction of nanoparticles. The heat transfer rate was found to be higher for nanolubricants in comparison to a base oil and the fluid film temperature was reduced by up to 15% at a volume fraction of 0.04%. Furthermore, rheological studies reveal that the prepared nanolubricants exhibited Newtonian behavior under the given conditions. The percentage increment of viscosity varied from 2.1% to 15.4% and 2.43% to 13.89% for a volume fraction ranging from 0.01% to 0.04% at a temperature of 40 °C and 100 °C, respectively. The dynamic light scattering results confirmed that the particles were well distributed in a base lubricant without much aggregation.

A critical review of the effect of nano-lubricant on the performance of hydrodynamic journal bearing

“…Around 40% of total investigations were performed on the TiO2 based nano-lubricants. These explorations have been further classified into numerical [13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24-26, 64-66, 74-76] and experimental studies [24,25,35,[67][68][69]. Due to a large number of numerical investigations, these are further divided based on the type of geometry into circular [13, 15-20, 24-26, 64-73] and noncircular journal bearings, namely, elliptical bearings [14,74] and lobed bearing [75,76] and type of numerical method employed to solve the governing equations into finite difference method (FDM) [13,16,17,26,[64][65][66] and Finite Element Method (FEM), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) [19,20,24].…”

“…Very few research articles are available on experimental studies. These experiments are performed on journalbearing test rigs [24,25,35,[67][68][69]. Nanoparticles are added in 0.5 wt.% [24,25,35] and in low volume fractions of 0.01% [69] to high volume fraction of 2% [68].…”

“…These experiments are performed on journalbearing test rigs [24,25,35,[67][68][69]. Nanoparticles are added in 0.5 wt.% [24,25,35] and in low volume fractions of 0.01% [69] to high volume fraction of 2% [68]. Tests are performed at wide speed ranges from 250 rpm [69] to 3000 rpm [24,25,69] and loads varying in between 10 N [24] to Table 2.…”

“…Nanoparticles are added in 0.5 wt.% [24,25,35] and in low volume fractions of 0.01% [69] to high volume fraction of 2% [68]. Tests are performed at wide speed ranges from 250 rpm [69] to 3000 rpm [24,25,69] and loads varying in between 10 N [24] to Table 2. Summary of numerical investigations on performance of non-circular bearings involving TiO2 based nanolubricants by FDM 10 kN [24,25].…”

Tribological Behavior of Mild Steel under Canola Biolubricant Conditions

“…Many studies have recently explored the possibility of using vegetable oil as a lubricant. e results are promising; vegetable oil has a good chance of being a better alternative to mineral oil both economically and environmentally [1][2][3][4]. In the contemporary world, biodiesel has continually received great attention as being an alternative biodegradable and nontoxic renewable source of fuel.…”