Design and Development of Low Cost Tribometer - 2020 - Materials Today - Main
Design and Development of Low Cost Tribometer - 2020 - Materials Today - Main
Design and Development of Low Cost Tribometer - 2020 - Materials Today - Main
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Pin on disc tribometer is a device to determine coefficient of friction and wear rate of the different mate-
Received 18 March 2020 rials. There is a need to design a tribometer as per standards for different applications. This study was
Received in revised form 3 April 2020 about designing and developing a low cost tribometer to study the wear of automotive engine materials
Accepted 28 April 2020
under lubricants with nano additives. Pin on disc arrangement was designed as per ASTM standard G 99–
Available online 2 June 2020
17. The parameters that can be controlled in the test rig are load, sliding distance, sliding speed, wear
track diameter, lubricant temperature, mixing time of nano additives in lubricants, mixing speed to
Keywords:
the stirrer. Measurement of frictional force was done using load cell attached to arduino circuit. Pilot test-
Pin on disc
Nano additives
ing was done by using 0.5% of nano fly ash having Average Particle Size (APS) < 100 nm, in SAE 10 W–30
Lubricants lubricant. The sliding distance, sliding speed and load were taken as 1500 m, 1.5 m/s, 15 N respectively.
Wear Wear test was conducted for three cases e.i. for dry run, with lubricant and with nano additive lubricating
Friction oils. Wear test was conducted for three replications of each category. It was found that use of nano fly ash
in SAE 10 W-30 was beneficial in reducing the coefficient of friction up to 76.5% and wt. loss up to 28.9%,
as compared with the specimens tested under SAE 10 W-30 base oil only. The use of nano fly ash is also a
novelty of this work. No literature is available on finding the tribological properties of steels using ‘‘Nano
Fly Ash”. Moreover, enhancement in tribological properties using nano fly ash as a lubricant additive
revealed that it can be used as a promising candidate to increase the life of automotive components
up to some extent.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Aspects of Materials Science and Engineering.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.04.826
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Aspects of Materials Science and Engineering.
1488 H. Singh et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 28 (2020) 1487–1491
speed and other parameters. Wear at the contact points during the of pin on the disc in order to vary the wear track diameter. At one
test provides the information about the wear characteristics of the end, the sample holder was designed which could hold the sample
materials [9]. pin of 10 mm diameter. Near the other end, the pulley was
Nanolubricants finds rich endeavor in engine applications as mounted on vertical movable structure. This vertical member
reported by many researchers. There are many studies depicting was capable for moving horizontally to adjust wear track diameter
that the nano particle are very effective to decrease wear and fric- as shown in the Fig. 2. Steel flexible wire was used to connect the
tion when dispersed in lubricants. Various nano additives like other end of lever to the pan through the pulley. The dead weights
polymers, metals, organic and inorganic materials have been used from 0 to 20 kg could be placed in the pan to vary the load from 0
in different lubricants [10]. Some researchers have used copper to 200 N.
oxide nano particles in lubricants, which reduced wear and friction
[11,12]. Some have used nano boric acid in different volume ratios 2.3. Coefficient of friction measurement using load cell with arduino
as engine oil additives to study friction and wear performance of circuit
cast iron and case carburized gear steel [13]. 1 to 2 wt% concentra-
tion of nano graphene was reported as the best range in the olive, A strain gauge based load cell, which created an electrical sig-
sunflower, and canola organic lubricating oils, while studying nal, whose magnitude is directly proportional to the load or force
specific grinding energy, coefficient of friction, surface roughness, being measured, was used. The system architecture and the actual
grinding forces and SEM /EDX analysis of TI-6AL-4 V-ELI [14]. picture of the arduino circuit is shown in Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b)
Reduced coefficient of friction was reported, when nano graphene respectively. HX711 24-bit analog to digital converter (ADC) was
with canola oil was used while machining Ti-6al-4v alloy at vari- used. By connecting HX711 amplifier to the microcontroller, the
ous cutting speeds like 80 m/min, 130 m/min and 180 m/min changes in the resistance of the load cell could be read. After the
[15]. Many studies were conducted to know the tribological effect calibration, a very accurate frictional force could be measured.
of the size and morphology of nano particles in lubricants [16]. For the communication, HX711 uses a two-wire interface (Clock
Main mechanisms reported behind the reduction in friction were and Data). PLX-DAQ, Parallax microcontroller data acquisition
rolling/sliding effect, protective film formation, third-body forma- add-on tool for Microsoft Excel was used for acquiring the fric-
tion, and mending effects [17]. Most of the tribo tests were con- tional force from the load cell. PLX-DAQ plots data as it arrives in
ducted using market based expensive pin on disc test rigs [18]. real-time using Microsoft Excel. The Coefficient of friction is given
Therefore, there was a need to develop and test, a cost effective tri- by newton force divided by load in newton. Using this data coeffi-
bometer, to study the effects of various nano additives in engine cient of friction v/s sliding distance graphs can be plotted.
lubricants.
2.4. Sliding speed variation with variable frequency drive(VFD)
2. Design and development of the tribometer
Motor of specifications, 1 hp and 1440 rpm with pulley reduc-
2.1. Disc and pin arrangement tion, was used to rotate the disc of the set up. Fuji electric drive
was used to control the speed of that three-phase motor through
Arrangement of pin and sample is shown in the Fig. 1. The pin the potentiometer. Hence, the speed of the disc could be varied
material should be prepared such that its hardness does not exceed from 100 rpm to 800 rpm.
the hardness of the disc. The tip of the sample should be spherical
in shape. For testing purposes, the pin was made of AISI 4140 (alloy
2.5. Mechanical stirrer and oil supply
steel) and which was hardened to 45 HRC. The material of the disc
was EN 31 hardened to 62 HRC.
Mechanical stirrer to mix the nano additive in lubricating oil
was attached over the rotating disc. It can be used to mix the nano
2.2. Lever/Load adjustments
additives in engine lubricating oil at different speed and for differ-
ent periods. Agglomeration is the main problem of the nano addi-
Lever was developed using square rod of mild steel. Movable
tives in the engine lubricants. Use of different surface chemicals to
fulcrum as show in Fig. 2 was designed to facilitate, the movement
increase the homogeneity of the nano particles in the engine base
oil can be a good option. Therefore, the mixing of different surfac-
tants for the nano particles in the oil could be done using the stir-
rer. After that the prepared oil can be directly be released over the
pin-disc interface through the pipe of 3 mm diameter. The flow of
the oil can be controlled by using one-way valve.
Fig. 3. (a) System architecture for the arduino circuit; (b) Arduino circuit for measuring the frictional force.
3. Experimentation methods and validation Table 1. The graphs for coefficient of friction v/s the sliding dis-
tance were plotted by the set up in all cases.
Testing of the set up was done by using nano fly ash particulate
in SAE 10 W-30 engine lubricant. Nano fly ash powder, average 4. Results and Discussion
particle size (APS) < 100 nm, spherical in shape, was procured from
Nanoshel-Intelligent Materials Pvt Ltd India. TEM image of fly ash The set up designed can be used to study the tribological effect
nano particles can be seen in Fig. 4(a). XRD graph of fly ash nano of any of the nano particles in powdered or liquid form in various
particles can be seen in Fig. 4(b). 0.5% percentage by weight of engine-lubricating oils. Various parameters like load, sliding dis-
the nano powder was induced in one litre the engine lubricant. tance, track diameter, sliding speed, lubricant temperature, mixing
The nano particles were stirred for 30 min at 60⁰ C. A spherical time of nano additives in lubricants and mixing speed of the stirrer
tip, sample pin of AISI 4140 material was prepared. The conditions can be varied in the set up designed. Temperature of the lubricants
taken for the test were load 15 N, sliding speed 1.5 m/s and sliding can be varied while mixing the nano particles. The effect of the stir-
distance 1500 m. Three cases studied were, with dry run, with SAE ring speed on the uniformity of the nano fluids can also be studied
10 W-30 and with SAE 10 W-30 + 0.5% nano fly ash by weight. by this set up.
Three replications for each case were done. Total nine samples, The set up was used to study the effect of the nano fly ash addi-
three repetitions (Rep) for each category were tested as per the tive in the lubricants on AISI 4140. Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 5(b) show the
1490 H. Singh et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 28 (2020) 1487–1491
Fig. 4. (a) SEM Image of nano fly ash; (b) XRD pattern of nano fly ash.
Table 1
Samples & Trails.
dry run, 0.11 with SAE 10 W-30 and 0.02 with SAE 10 W-30
Sample No Trails + 0.5% nano fly ash by weight. The average wear loss in mg was
1 Dry Run Rep 1 44.53 mg in dry run, 17.41 mg with SAE 10 W-30 and 12.77 mg
2 Dry Run Rep 2 with SAE 10 W-30 + 0.5% nano fly ash by weight. The coefficient
3 Dry Run Rep 3
of friction v/s sliding distance plot for the all the three cases is
4 With Base OiL Rep 1
5 With Base OiL Rep 2 shown in Fig. 6(a). In the figure it may also by pointed out that,
6 With Base OiL Rep 3 the cofficient of friction during the dry run increases at about
7 With Nano Oil Rep 1 1200 m and stabilizes beyond that. This is due to increase in sur-
8 With Nano Oil Rep 2
face roughness and depositing of debris removed from the tip of
9 With Nano Oil Rep 3
the material in the long run [3].
SEM image of the tip of AISI 4140 sample in third case is shown
in the Fig. 6(b), which shows scuffing and adhesive wear of the
material. The nano particles under lubrication form a tribofilm
between the surfaces of the rubbing materials. The formation of
tribofilm protects the metal contacts, therefore reducing coeffi-
cient of friction & wear. These particles get embedded in worn pits
on contact surfaces. Tribofilm bears load & separates the surfaces,
which results in wear drop. Fly ash nano particles roll between the
surfaces which results in mixed rolling and sliding friction. There-
fore, the coefficient of friction and wear are reduced remarkably.
The results also indicate the reduction in wear due to ball bearing
effects of fly ash nano particles between the rubbing contacts.
Nano particles resulted in a film formation between contacting
region that resulted in reduction in coefficient of friction.
5. Conclusions
Fig. 6. (a) Coefficient of friction v/s sliding distance plot for all three cases; (b) SEM image of the tip of pin with nano fly ash + base oil case.
3. The use of nano fly ash is also the novelty of this work. No lit- [2] D. Baykal, R. Siskey, H. Haider, V. Saikko, T. Ahlroos, S. Kurtz, Advances in
tribological testing of artificial joint biomaterials using multidirectional pin-
erature is available on finding the tribological properties of
on-disk testers, J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. Mater. 31 (2014) 117–134.
steels using ‘‘Nano Fly Ash”. Moreover, enhancement in tribo- [3] X. Li, M. Sosa, U. Olofsson, A pin-on-disc study of the tribology characteristics
logical properties using nano fly ash as a lubricant additive of sintered versus standard steel gear materials, Wear 340–341 (2015) 31–40.
revealed that it can be used as a promising candidate to [4] A. Torres, Pérez, G. García-Atance Fatjó, M. Hadfield, S. Austen, A model of
friction for a pin-on-disc configuration with imposed pin rotation, Mechanism
increase the life of automotive components upto some extent. And Machine Theory. 46 (2011) 1755–1772.
4. The nano particles under lubrication form a tribofilm between [5] L. Yang, Pin-on-disc wear testing of tungsten carbide with a new moving pin
the surfaces of the rubbing materials. The formation of tribofilm technique, Wear 225–229 (1999) 557–562.
[6] J. Fildes, S. Meyers, C. Mulligan, R. Kilaparti, Evaluation of the wear and
protects the metal contacts, therefore reducing coefficient of abrasion resistance of hard coatings by ball-on-three-disk test methods—A
friction & wear. Fly ash nano particles roll between the surfaces case study, Wear 302 (2013) 1040–1049.
which results in mixed rolling and sliding friction. Therefore, [7] L. Pérez, S. Lascano, C. Aguilar, D. Estay, U. Messner, I. Figueroa, et al., DEM–FEA
estimation of pores arrangement effect on the compressive Young’s modulus
the coefficient of friction and wear are reduced remarkably. for Mg foams, Comput. Mater. Sci. 110 (2015) 281–286.
5. The low cost tribometer can also be used to study the effects of [8] P. Blau, K. Budinski, Development and use of ASTM standards for wear testing,
other nano additives in the engine lubricating oils at different Wear 225–229 (1999) 1159–1170.
[9] A. Burnett, M. Bradley, D. O’Flynn, T. Deng, M. Bingley, Anomalies in the results
parameters. obtained from rotating disc accelerator erosion testers: a discussion of possible
causes, Wear 233–235 (1999) 275–283.
[10] H. Ettefaghi, A. Ahmadi, S. Rashidi, M. Mohtasebi, Alaei, Experimental
CRediT authorship contribution statement
evaluation of engine oil properties containing copper oxide nanoparticles as
a nanoadditive, International Journal Of Industrial, Chemistry. 4 (2013) 28.
Harvinder Singh: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodol- [11] Y. Wu, W. Tsui, T. Liu, Experimental analysis of tribological properties of
lubricating oils with nanoparticle additives, Wear 262 (2007) 819–825.
ogy, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Anoop
[12] M. Thottackkad, R. Perikinalil, P. Kumarapillai, Experimental evaluation on the
Kumar Singh: Supervision, Validation, Visualization. Yogesh tribological properties of coconut oil by the addition of CuO nanoparticles,
Kumar Singla: Conceptualization, Supervision, Validation, Writing International Journal Of Precision Engineering And Manufacturing. 13 (2012)
- review & editing. Kashidas Chattopadhyay: Resources, Software, 111–116.
[13] A. Vadiraj, M. Kamaraj, V. Sreenivasan, Wear and friction behavior of alloyed
Visualization, Methodology. gray cast iron with solid lubricants under boundary lubrication, Tribol. Int. 44
(2011) 1168–1173.
[14] H. Singh, V. Sharma, M. Dogra, Exploration of graphene assisted vegetables oil
Declaration of Competing Interest based minimum quantity lubrication for surface grinding of TI-6AL-4V-ELI,
Tribol. Int. 144 (2020) 106–113.
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan- [15] R. Singh, J. Dureja, M. Dogra, M. Gupta, M. Mia, Q. Song, Wear behavior of
textured tools under graphene-assisted minimum quantity lubrication system
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared in machining Ti-6Al-4V alloy, Tribol. Int. 145 (2020) 106–183.
to influence the work reported in this paper. [16] Y. Hwang, C. Lee, Y. Choi, S. Cheong, D. Kim, K. Lee, et al., Effect of the size and
morphology of particles dispersed in nano-oil on friction performance
between rotating discs, J. Mech. Sci. Technol. 25 (2011) 2853–2857.
References [17] F. Chin~as-Castillo, H. Spikes, Mechanism of Action of Colloidal Solid
Dispersions, Journal Of Tribology. 125 (2003) 552-557.
[1] F. Kennedy, Y. Lu, I. Baker, Contact temperatures and their influence on wear [18] V. Jatti, T. Singh, Copper oxide nano-particles as friction-reduction and anti-
during pin-on-disk tribotesting, Tribol. Int. 82 (2015) 534–542. wear additives in lubricating oil, J. Mech. Sci. Technol. 29 (2015) 793–798.