Tribological Behaviour Of Bio-Leubricant With Additive For Wind Turbine Gear Box

World relies heavily on petroleum-based products which causes a concern related to future bio-degradability. The adverse effects on environment caused by hydrocarbon-based oil leads to the development of environmental friendly alternative such as biolubricants. In recent years adoption of biolubricants in automotive, locomotive, aerospace and renewable systems is increasing, especially the use of biolubricants in renewable energy system such as for wind turbine gearbox and other systems have made renewables more meaningful towards a greener environment. Biolubricants are used because of their high lubricity, low toxicity, high viscosity index, higher flash point, high load carrying, anti-wear performance capability, rapid biodegradation with near zero greenhouse gas emissions and better compatible to working personnel in terms of safety. In this study, the tribological performance of the lubricants is experimentally evaluated. The first part of the results consists of evaluation of commercially available biolubricant vs synthetic gearbox oil as per ASTM 4172 Four-ball wear test machine standard. In the second part of the results, the effect of particulate additive such as graphene in biolubricant is been evaluated when compared to no additive synthetic gearbox oil. Additive concentration ranges from 100ppm-300ppm. Four test conditions have been evolved and tested for identifying the best combinations of highest tribological performance of the selected lubricants and additives respectively. Each result shown has been repeated five times for maximum repeatability thus ensuring best results on the wear and friction properties of the lubricants under test.