Investigation of the Destruction of Lubricating Layers of Sulfonate Greases under Friction and Corrosion

Abstract

To study such characteristics of sulfonate greases as the lubricity during friction of solids in the mode of boundary lubrication and the protective properties of these lubricants in corrosive environments. A common requirement for the implementation of these indicators is the formation of strong lubricating layers that protect the surfaces of parts from destruction. For each of the studied sulfonate greases with various thickeners and dispersion media, based on the analysis of experimental temperature dependences of the friction coefficients in the temperature range of 30–300°C, the values of the activation energies of the boundary layers destruction were calculated, and the values of Т_cm were estimated. The conducted research has shown that for the examined sulfonate greases, there is a qualitative correlation between the values of temperature-energy criterion π_D with the experimentally obtained values of the corrosion rates of the steel surface in a corrosive environment under the films of sulfonate greases.