Keywords

Biofuels, Lubricant Contamination

Track

Tribotesting I (Session 4D)

Wear Effects of Mineral‐Oil Lubricant Dilution with Biofuels


Use of biodiesel leads to engine oil dilution, because unburned biodiesel in the combustion chamber is being scrapped to the oil pan. This research is concerned with changes of oil friction, wear and lubricity properties because of biodiesel dilution. Mixtures of SAE 15W-40 oil, which were contaminated by known percentages of the biodiesels from several feedstocks were tested in a pin-on-disk tribometer. The contact was employed of an AISI 316 stainless-steel ball on an AISI 1018 steel disk. Wear on the disk surfaces showed that even small biodiesel percentages diluting mineral-oil may reduce wear protection. However, these reductions were not substantially different than those observed for same percentages of mineral oil dilution by fossil diesel. The study was also carried out of viscosity increases of the oil-biodiesel mixtures before and after the tests.

Authors and Company/Institution

Gustavo J. Molina, Valentin Soloiu, Mosfequr Rahman, Sultana M. Shanta, Wesley Powell, Channing Watson and FNU Aktaruzzaman, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA