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This study emphasizes the effect of ultrasonic surface rolling (USR) on the surface roughness, hardness, and tribological properties of ductile iron under different normal loads. Results revealed that surface roughness was reduced by 96% and surface hardness increased by 37.8% after USR treatment. By increasing normal load, the average friction coefficient of the USR-treated specimens decreased, but the wear rate of both USR-treated and untreated specimens increased, mainly because the dominant wear mechanism changed. The average friction coefficient of the untreated specimen (~ 0.32) was much higher than the USR-treated specimen (~ 0.24) when the normal load was 30 N. However, the wear rate of the USR-treated specimen was larger than that of the untreated specimen when the normal load was greater than 20 N because the higher hardness abrasive particles on the worn surface of the USR-treated specimen not only accelerated abrasive particle wear, but also caused more severe adhesive wear.

Purpose This paper aims to study the thermal oxidation performance of antioxidant additives in ester base oils deeply. Design/methodology/approach ReaxFF molecular dynamics was used to simulate the thermal oxidation process of butyl octyl diphenylamine and octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) propanoate as two antioxidant additives act on the Trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO) base oil. Meanwhile, combining with the infrared spectroscopy characterization results of the thermal oxidation test, this paper provides theoretical support for the development of high-performance synthetic lubricants and their antioxidant additives. Findings The results show that butyl octyldiphenylamine easily removes the hydrogen atom on the secondary amine, which promotes the formation of more long carbon chain diene radicals or polyene hydroperoxides from TMPTO. Octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) propanoate could easily decompose into octadecyl hydroperoxide and 2,6-di-tert-butyl 4-propionylphenol, which could convert into 2-tert-butyl-4-peroxyethyl-6-hydroperoxy-tert-butylphenol in the middle of the thermal oxidation reaction, prompting TMPTO to form more short-chain alkenyl and olefin hydroperoxide or other oxide. Originality/value The main change characteristics of base oil molecules are the first thermal decomposition to form oleic acid groups and ethane cyclopropane methyl oleate. Under the action of butyl octyldiphenylamine and octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) propanoate, the deep oxidation and decomposition reaction are slowed down. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-01-2020-0037/

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the thermal oxidation behavior of trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO) base oil when exposed to Fe surfaces. Design/methodology/approach Samples of TMPTO bulk oil were placed in Fe vessels and heated in an oven to accelerate the oxidation at different time intervals, while others were placed in glass vessels and used as experimental controls. Subsequently, the physicochemical properties of the oxidized TMPTOs, including the kinematic viscosity and acid value, were measured and a structural analysis was conducted using the Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. Findings The results demonstrate that the TMPTO bulk oil exhibited an exponential increase in the kinematic viscosity along with the increasing acid value over the oxidation time. The Fe surface significantly increased the kinematic viscosity of TMPTO, while only mildly impacting its acid value compared with the experimental controls. The structural analysis results of the TMPTO suggest that the C = C and = C-H bonds were the vulnerable sites. Furthermore, the results suggest that the Fe surface evidently accelerates the chemical reactions of the C = C and the = C-H bonds, and less alcohols and more carbonyl products were identified in the oil samples that were heated in the Fe vessels. Originality/value The results demonstrate that the Fe surfaces affected the oxidation behavior of the TMPTO base oil, and an interaction mechanism between the Fe and the TMPTO is developed.

To prepare a high-performance anti-friction and wear-resistant composite material for friction sub-components in marine equipment, a modification was made by adding different amounts sodium polyacrylate (PAANa) to ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). PAANa/UHMWPE-blended powders were prepared at individual weight ratios of 0/100, 3/97, 5/95, 8/92, 13/87, and 18/82 with hot-press molding. In seawater, experiments of PAANa/UHMWPE composites sliding against GCr15 have been conducted with a ball-on-disk configuration in this study. The results show the surface hardness of composites was almost the same with the increase in PAANa proportion, however, the friction coefficient and wear scars of PAANa/UHMWPE composites/GCr15 sliding pairs firstly decrease and then increase. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results show that wear mechanism of the composites is mainly plastic deformation and spalling. The composites with PAANa content of 3% and 5% achieves better tribological properties than the pure UHMWPE material.

Shock waves and micro-jets generated during the process of bubble collapse lead to cavitation damage on the surface of materials in hydraulic machinery equipment parts, which is attention. However, research on the dynamics of bubble collapse is still unclear. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to study the compression and collapse processes of microscopic bubbles under the impact of different velocities for water molecules. The velocities of the shock wave, time of bubble collapse and shock pressure of collapse were obtained. Results showed that higher the impact velocity, shorter is the time of bubble collapse and the higher velocity of the micro-jet. After the bubble collapse, the micro-jet will form secondary water hammer shocks and a greater shock pressure. The water structure appears to undergo a phase change (ice-VII structure) when the velocity of water molecules is 1.0 km s-1. The shock induces the bubble collapse and the micro-jet significantly increases the chemical activity of water molecules; the degree of ionization of water molecules increases with the shock velocity. In addition, the Hugoniot curve of the shock velocity obtained by molecular dynamics simulations are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Long developing period and cumbersome evaluation for the lubricating materials performance seriously jeopardize the successful development and application of any database system in tribological field. Such major setback can be solved effectively by implementing approaches with high throughput calculation. However, it often involves with vast number of output files, which are computed on the basis of first principle computation, having different data format from that of their experimental counterparts. Commonly, the input, storage and management of first principle calculation files and their individually test counterparts, implementing fast query and display in the database, adding to the use of physical parameters, as predicted with the performance estimated by first principle approach, may solve such setbacks. Investigation is thus performed for establishing database website specifically for lubricating materials, which satisfies both data: (i) as calculated on the basis of first principles and (ii) as obtained by practical experiment. It further explores preliminarily the likely relationship between calculated physical parameters of lubricating oil and its respectively tribological and anti-oxidative performance as predicted by lubricant machine learning model. Success of the method facilitates in instructing the obtainment of optimal design, preparation and application for any new lubricating material so that accomplishment of high performance is possible.

Available model of 3D-quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR, the method of TopomerCoMFA) has been used to establish relationship between antioxidant performances of lubricating oil (trimethylolpropane trioleate, TMPTO) with 15 kinds of amine additives and its molecular structure. Correlation coefficient of the cross-validation (include internal q 2 and external q pred 2 ) and conventional correlation coefficient showed the model to be both stable and good predictive. The electron-donating group and larger steric effects group are adopted at the para-position or meta-position of amido on the benzene ring, and suitably decreasing the branch chain near the para-position, these indicate that the antioxidant performance of amine additives can be enhanced. The results not only can help us understanding the rule of antioxidant performance, but also providing guidance(s) to predict antioxidant performance of existing amine additives and to design or modify new amine additives in lubricating oil.

Determining the nature of the microscopic mechanism of tribological properties by experimental methods for a polymer material surface/interface in the sliding friction process is a challenge. Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted by sliding a rigid indenter over the amorphous polyethylene. The results show that the friction is mainly composed of plough force and adhesion force. The average friction of adhesive contact is greater than that of frictionless contact because of the adhesion effect. The difference of average friction between adhesive contact and frictionless contact increases with increasing indentation depth because of the plough force effect. The elastic deformation of amorphous polyethylene in the cohesive zone is related to van der Waals interaction energy, whereas the plastic deformation was mainly dominated by bond angle energy and dihedral energy of the molecular chain for amorphous polyethylene. Molecular chains of amorphous polyethylene extend along the sliding direction and agglomerate along the indentation direction. The flexibility of the molecular chains increases with the increase of temperature and facilitates the molecular chains returning more easily to their original state.

The ester base oil of dioctyl adipate (DOA) was oxidized in an oven at 200 °C for 30 h, and variations in the physicochemical and tribological properties were studied. To investigate the thermal-oxidation mechanism, the thermal-oxidation products were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC−MS), and the thermal-oxidation process was simulated using visual reactive force field molecular dynamics (ReaxFF MD). The results indicated that the total acid number (TAN) increased significantly because of the presence of 14% carboxylic acids and low molecular weight monoesters. The tribological properties were improved by the formation of the strongly polar carboxylic acids. Additionally, the increase in kinematic viscosity was limited due to the formation of high molecular weight polymerization products and low molecular weight degradation products. Thermal-oxidative degradation and polymerization mechanisms were proposed by combining ReaxFF MD simulations and GC−MS results.