Lubricants, Volume 8, Issue 11 (November 2020) – 6 articles

Most of the reported work on the effect of applied potential on tribocorrosion or corrosive wear of metallic alloys in a corrosive environment were conducted at anodic potentials. Limited tests have been conducted at cathodic potentials for comparison purposes or to derive the pure mechanical wear component in tribocorrosion. This work investigated the effect of cathodic potential on the friction and wear behaviour of an important biomedical alloy, CoCrMo, sliding against an Al₂O₃ slider in 0.9% NaCl solution at 37 °C. High friction was found at cathodic potentials close to the open circuit potential, where mechanical wear played a predominant role in material removal. At potentials more cathodic than the hydrogen charging potential, low friction and low wear were observed. The coefficient of friction (COF) and total material loss decreased with increasing cathodic potential, such that at −1000 mV (saturated calomel electrode, SCE), extremely low COF values, as low as 0.02, and negligible material loss were obtained. Such reductions in friction and wear at increasing cathodic potentials were accompanied with the formation of parallel lines in the sliding track and were gradually diminished with increasing applied contact load. It is believed that hydrogen charging and hydrogen segregated layer formation at the surface are responsible for such a phenomenon. It can also be concluded that it is difficult to derive the pure mechanical wear component in tribocorrosion by simply conducting a test at an arbitrary cathodic potential. Full article

Friction-induced vibrations are a significant problem in various engineering applications, while dynamic vibration absorbers are an economical and effective tool for suppressing various kinds of vibrations. In this study, the archetypal mass-on-moving-belt model with an attached dynamic vibration absorber was considered. By adopting an analytical procedure, the optimal tuning of the absorber’s parameters was defined. Furthermore, the bifurcations occurring at the loss of stability were analytically investigated; this analysis illustrated that a properly chosen nonlinearity in the absorber’s stiffness permits controlling the supercritical or subcritical character of the bifurcation. However, a numerical analysis of the system’s dynamics, despite confirming the analytical results, also illustrated that the system’s global behavior is only slightly affected by the bifurcation character. Indeed, a dynamic vibration absorber possessing a perfectly linear restoring force function seems to provide the optimal performance; namely, it minimizes the velocity range for which stick–slip oscillations exists. Full article

The present study theoretically evaluates the stability potential of noncircular geometries when they are adopted in the outer bearing of floating ring bearings (FRB). A numerical study is carried out to evaluate the stability about the static equilibrium position of a balanced, symmetrical, rigid rotor, horizontally placed, and supported at both ends by identical FRBs. In the analysis, the outer bearing of these FRBs is alternatively shaped with common circular bore (CB), two lobe-wave bore (2LWB) or lemon bore (LB), assuming a linearization of the film forces. A minor part of the study consists of partially supporting the results of the above study by means of a nonlinear, transient analysis. Despite limiting to the theoretical aspect, dealt with under several simplifying hypotheses, the investigation highlights the influence of the examined non-circular geometries on the stability of the static equilibrium position, when these geometries are adopted for shaping the outer housing of the FRB. The paper shows that contrasting effects are obtained, depending on the chosen geometrical parameters. In the paper, the acronyms CB, 2LWB, and LB are used to indicate the FRB layouts respectively equipped with outer circular, wave, and lemon bearing. Full article

A modern lubricant contains various additives with different functionalities and the interactions or reactions between these additives could induce synergistic or antagonistic effects in tribological performance. In this study, sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy was used to investigate competitive adsorption of lubricant additives at a solid/base oil interface. A silica substrate was used as a model solid surface. The lubricant additives studied here included two oil-soluble ionic liquids (ILs, [N888H][DEHP] and [P8888][DEHP]), an antiwear additive (secondary ZDDP), an organic friction modifier (OFM), and a dispersant (PIBSI). Our results showed that for mixtures of ZDDP and IL in a base oil (PAO4), the silica surface is dominated by the IL molecules. In the cases of base oils containing OFM and IL, the silica/lubricant interface is dominated by OFM over [N888H][DEHP], while it is preferentially occupied by [P8888][DEHP] over OFM. The presence of PIBSI in the mixture of PAO4 and IL leads to the formation of a mixed surface layer at the silica surface with PIBSI as a major component. The SFG results in this investigation provide fundamental insights that are helpful to design the formulation of new lubricant additives of desired properties. Full article

The present study aims to analyze the secondary movement of the piston considering the deformations present in the piston skirt, the hydrodynamic lubrication, and the effects of the clearances in the connecting rod bearings. The analysis of the piston movement is performed by developing a mathematical model, which was used to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of the piston movement, the slap force on the piston skirt, the effect of the secondary piston movement on the connecting rod, and the influence of clearances in the connecting rod bearings and in the piston. For the study, the geometric of the crankshaft-connecting rod–piston system of a single-cylinder diesel engine is taken as a reference. The deformation model of the piston was carried out by means of a symmetric finite element model (FEM), which was integrated into the mathematical model of the piston. MATLAB^® software (The MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA) is used for the development of model simulations. The obtained results show that during the combustion cycle, there are six changes of direction in the secondary movement of the piston with lateral and angular velocities that can reach a magnitude of 0.13 m/s and 4 rad/s. The lateral and angular movement of the piston during its travel causes the appearance of impacts on the piston skirt with the cylinder liner, which produces an increase of approximately 500 N in the hydrodynamic forces in the connecting rod bearings. The force analysis shows that the range of the maximum magnitudes of these forces is between 1900 N and 3480 N. The increase in clearance between the cylinder liner and the piston skirt (Cpc) causes a greater lateral displacement and an increase in the angle of inclination of the piston. Analysis of the change in connecting rod bearing clearance shows that there are critical values in relation to clearance Cpc. The model presented allows us to analyze the different characteristics of the secondary movement of the piston, which involve the interaction between the piston skirt and the cylinder liner. Additionally, the influence of this movement on the connecting rod bearings is considered. The foregoing can be used as an analysis tool for the study of designs and/or modifications in the engine in such a way that greater durability of the components, reductions in acoustic emissions, and reduction in friction losses are achieved. Full article

Eco-friendly and low-cost water-based nanolubricants containing rutile TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) were developed for accelerating their applications in industrial-scale hot steel rolling. The lubrication performance of developed nanolubricants was evaluated in a 2-high Hille 100 experimental rolling mill at a rolling temperature of 850 °C in comparison to that of pure water. The results indicate that the use of nanolubricant enables one to decrease the rolling force, reduce the surface roughness and the oxide scale thickness, and enhance the surface hardness. In particular, the nanolubricant consisting of 4 wt % TiO₂, 10 wt % glycerol, 0.2 wt % sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) and 1 wt % Snailcool exhibits the best lubrication performance by lowering the rolling force, surface roughness and oxide scale thickness by up to 8.1%, 53.7% and 50%, respectively. The surface hardness is increased by 4.4%. The corresponding lubrication mechanisms are attributed to its superior wettability and thermal conductivity associated with the synergistic effect of rolling, mending and laminae forming that are contributed by TiO₂ NPs. Full article