Tribological Effects of Diesel Engine Oil Contamination on Steel and Hybrid Sliding Contacts

Abstract

In advanced automotive engines, especially in diesel engines, consumer demand for ever increasing service intervals for vehicles has led to longer oil drain periods. Consequently this has increased contamination levels in lubricating oils that will in turn reduce engine efficiency and increase the possibility of system failure due to increases in viscosity and the potential of oil starvation leading to scuffing and catastrophic failure of the engine. Therefore it is necessary to understand the effects of contaminants in diesel engine oil on the tribological performance of tribo-contacts and also the possible interaction between the contaminants. The paper aims to investigate the influence of contaminants and their interactions on diesel engine oil using Electro sensing (ES) monitoring. Using pin-on-disc (PoD) tribometer, all tests were carried out under ambient conditions at 5 m/s sliding speed and contact stress of 1.5–2.05 GPa to simulate a valve-train in a diesel engine with fully formulated heavy-duty diesel engine oil used as lubricant. In the first phase, using a parametric study examining the effect of four contaminants (soot, oxidation, moisture, and sulphuric acid) at varying levels (four for each) on steel-on-steel sliding contact. It was observed that all contaminants and contaminant levels reduce the conductivity of the oil. Oxidation and soot contaminants produced large increases in viscosity. The wear rate was mainly influenced by acid and soot additions, while the coefficient of friction was increased by all contaminants and contaminant levels. The steady-state charge levels changed for some contaminants. The best correlation of steady-state charge with the other measured tribological parameters of wear rate, friction, and temperature is seen for the series of oxidized oils. The multi-contaminated oil (L4× 4) shows remarkably little degradation in tribological performance. Analysis of the wear mechanisms shows that soot and oxidation produced abrasion and polishing wear, respectively, while sulphuric acid and moisture produced corrosive wear. In the second phase, investigates the effects of diesel contaminants and their interaction on tribological properties for bearing steel (En31) and ceramic (Si₃N₄) sliding contacts using a factorial study. The contaminants are soot, sulphuric acid, moisture and oxidation, and each contaminant has three different level of concentration (low, medium and high) in the test matrix. The factorial test matrix consisted of 20 tests, constructed from a quarter fractional factorial test matrix with four points at the medium values for the contaminants. Results from this matrix required six further tests to elucidate aliased pairs of interactions using Bayesian model selection. A pin-on-disc tribometer was used to carry out all the experiments. The factorial study showed that charge was influenced by tribo-couple material; the silicon nitride discs produced higher charge than steel discs. However, it was opposite for friction; the silicon nitride disc gave lower friction and the pins showed higher friction than their steel counterparts. For wear scar and temperature, soot contaminant was found to be important. The two important interactions were found for the charge response, with the interaction between sulphuric acid and pin material being more important than sulphuric acid–oxidation interaction. Similarly to charge, an interaction between sulphuric acid and pin material interaction was found for friction. To conclude, the ES monitoring was sensitive to the presence and levels of contaminants in diesel lubricating oil, particularly diesel soot. The change in charge levels indicated the concentration of soot level present in the contact, which was directly related to wear. ES monitoring also detected interactions between the contaminants through statistical analysis. ES monitoring has shown that monitoring lubricant performance and the effects of contamination are feasible under laboratory conditions.