Degradation of Ecological Energy Carriers Under Cyclic Pressure Loading

Abstract The presented work investigates the degradation of an ecological energy carrier in the form of changes in its properties, which was subjected to dynamic loading through a test device in laboratory conditions. The primary goal was to describe the degradation process itself in terms of obtained data through the analysis of kinematic viscosity, water content, acidity number, and X-ray spectrometry. The process was focused on monitoring the values of increase in contaminants and monitoring the values of changes that occurred in case of additives. The ecological energy carrier in the form of transmission-hydraulic fluid was cyclically loaded in a time interval of 200 working hours, while a time interval of every 25 working hours was used when a sample was taken and subsequently analysed. From the obtained data, it can be concluded that during the degradation process, there were no significant changes in the observed properties of the liquid, chemical composition, or additives. For this reason, further measurements of the ecological energy carrier were subsequently carried out. The influence of the given energy carrier on the change in the flow rate of a new type of hydraulic pump with external gearing was also monitored.