Tribological behavior as lubricant additive and physiochemical characterization of Jatropha oil blends

This investigation reports on the effect of Jatropha oil doped with lube oil on tribological characteristics of Al-7%Si alloy. The factors involved were Jatropha oil percentages, sliding velocities and load which was optimized for weight loss, friction coefficient and specific wear rate characteristics. The conventional lubricant was SAE 40. It is observed that the Jatropha oil percentage factor had significant influence on the weight loss, friction coefficient and wear rate of the pin. The optimum result was A₂ B₃ C₁ for pin weight loss, friction coefficient and wear rate. From the experimental result, it is found that the wear scar diameter increases with the increase of load for lube oil and reduced by addition of percentage of Jatropha oil. Flash temperature parameter was also studied in this experiment and results show that 15% addition of Jatropha oil would result in less possibility to film breakdown. The overall results of this experiment reveal that the addition of 15% Jatropha oil with base lubricant produces better performance and anti-wear characteristics. This blend can be used as lubricant oil which is environment friendly in nature and would help to reduce petroleum based lubricant substantially.