Effect of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles addition into lubricating oil on tribological performance

Minimizing friction and wear in between mating parts is the main concern in the field of tribological studies. Lubricants with improved tribological properties are continuously explored for minimizing friction and wear. In the present work, an attempt has been made to evaluate the effect of the addition of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles as lubricant additives on the tribological performance of base lubricant oil (SAE10W40) using four-ball tester. Weight in the percentage of Al2O3 nanoparticles was added in base oil and evaluated the effect of additives on wear preventive characteristic and coefficient of friction of base lubricant oil. Integrated Taguchi-Grey relational approach is implemented to obtain the optimum combination of load and % wt. of Al2O3 nanoparticle addition for improving the tribological performance of base lubricant oil. With a load of 250N and 0.5 wt% of Al2O3 nanoparticles shows an optimum combination for the improved tribological performance of base oil. The wear scar diameter and coefficient of friction found to be reduced by 20.75% and 22.67% respectively with the addition of 0.5 wt% of Al2O3 nanoparticles in base lubricant oil. The lubrication performance seems to be improved because of mending effect and ball bearing effect of Al2O3 nanoparticles forming a self-protective film on the friction surface