The Effect of Hardness of Base Material on Tribological Properties of VG-46 Lubricant in Mixed Lubrication Regime.

Abstract

: Lubrication is a technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction & wear. There are four major lubrication regimes i.e., boundary, mixed, elasto-hydrodynamic & hydrodynamic. Most of the industrial machines & equipment’s moving surfaces in contact, works in the mixed lubrication regime. Almost the entire major breakdown related to surface pitting & wear resulted from high friction occurs in this regime only. A lot of study & research is required in this field for improving the tribological performance of the surfaces in contact. Hardness of the base material always plays an important role in the performance of the tribological pair in all lubrication regimes especially in mixed lubrication. Therefore, authors consider the tribo pair of brass & EN31 as base material for conducting the study of the effect on various tribological parameters in mixed lubrication regime with VG-46 lubricant. Authors have also focused themselves to investigate the effect of the hardness of the base material (EN31) on the friction & wear parameters for the above mentioned tribo pair & lubricant in mixed lubrication regime because of its wide practical & industrial applications in most of the equipment & machines Also, this tribological pair is the most imperative pair used in enormous industrial applications. VG-46 is also an effective lubricant used in various industrial setups.