Effect of bio-lubricant on tribological characteristics of steel

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of jatropha oil doped with lube oil on tribological characteristics of IP 239 standard using four ball tribotester. The ball test material was EN31 steel, 12.7mm in diameter with a surface finish of 0.1 micrometer center lime average (CLA). The test was performed at temperature of 75 degrees c with different loads (15 kg and 40 kg) where rotating speed was 1500 rpm and test duration of 3600s. The lube oil used for this experiment was SAE 40 and contaminated with a various blends like 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, of jatropha oil. The lubricants were characterized by viscosity using viscometer. From the experimental result, it is found that wear scar diameter is increased with the increase of load for lube oil and reduced by addition of percentage of jatropha oil. Friction torque analyzed in this experiment and J5 shows dominant performance at 40 kg load. Flash temperature parameter also studied in this experiment and results shown that 5% adding jatropha oil has the less possibility to film breakdown. The overall results of this experiment reveal that the addition of 5% jatropha oil with base lubricant shows better performance and anti-wear characteristics. This blend can be used as lubricant oil which is environment friendly in nature and would help to reduce petroleum based lubricant substantially. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.