Effect of Zinc Dialkyl Dithiophosphate Replenishment on Tribological Performance of Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Oil

Soot is the main contamination that affects oil performance and increases oil drain intervals in heavyduty engine oil. It is also believed that additive concentration in engine oil can be influenced due to additive depletion over time and additive adsorption on soot particles. To extend oil drain intervals and improve oil performance, filter manufactures explore removing the soot to a certain level and replenishing the consumed additives. Zinc Dialkyl Dithiophosphate (ZDDP) is one of the most favoured anti-wear additives that reacts very rapidly with rubbing surfaces to form tribofilm that reduce wear. In this study, the experimental work aims to investigate the effect of ZDDP replenishment on tribological performance in the existence of soot and after removing soot from heavy-duty used oil. The study reveals that reclaiming the used oil can be achieved by removing the soot to a certain level. The results demonstrate that the reclaimed oil after removing soot is still not as good as the fresh oil. This study proves that additive depletion, additive adsorption on soot and the decomposition of antiwear additive adversely influence the reclaimed oil performance. However, replenishing the consumed additive by adding a small amount of ZDDP helps to improve the reclaimed oil performance compared to a large amount of ZDDP which is required to re-gain the oil performance in the existence of soot.

FORMULATION OF REFINED, BLEACHED AND DEODORISED PALM STEARIN WITH ZINC DIALKYL-DITHIOPHOSPHATE ADDITIVE AND ITS TRIBOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE

Vegetable oils have recently received worldwide attention for their use as a lubricant base stock that has numerous advantages, including their environmental friendliness. In this study, a refined, bleached and deodorised palm stearin was selected as the base lubricant, and its friction and wear performance were investigated with a pin-on-disk tribotester. The effect of zinc dialkyl-dithiophosphate (ZDDP) additive in concentrations of 1wt%, 3wt% and 5wt% on friction and wear performance were evaluated. Commercial semi-synthetic oil SAE 15W50 was used for comparison purposes. The experiments were conducted at a sliding speed of 1.5 m/s under a normal force of 9.81 N for 60 min. Results show that an increase in ZDDP concentrations improved both friction reduction and wear performance of the lubricant. The coefficient of friction (COF) of RBD palm stearin was reduced approximately at 71% when 5wt% of ZDDP was added and it shows that the friction reduction performance of PS+5wt% (COF=0.039) was comparable to SAE 15W50 (COF=0.035). While, wear coefficient of RBD palm stearin was reduced significantly from 2.08 × 10−3 to 8.89 x 10−5 when 5wt% ZDDP additive was added and it shows that the wear performance of PS+5wt% was better than that of SAE 15W50, 1.94 x 10−4. Further analysis of the wear worn surface with a high-resolution optical microscope was also conducted with a surface profilometer to examine the metallurgy of the pin surface and the roughness of the pin.