Tribological Analysis of a Prunus Armeniaca Biolubricant under Various Temperature Conditions and its Performance in the Field of Journal Bearing

Mineral oil-based lubricants have increased concerns regarding environmental damage, creating an increasing trend of promoting biolubricants based on either vegetable oil or animal oil. The presented work used Apricot kernel oil (Prunus armeniaca) as a base oil to synthesize biolubricant through a chemical process named Transesterification. The presented work has two parts: Tribological analysis of blends of Biolubricant and 15W40 oil on a High Temperature Tribometer with Ball-on-Disc configuration under different Temperature conditions; and performance analysis of prepared biolubricant in the field of Journal Bearing. Also, the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy was conducted to determine the organic components present in the prepared biolubricant. The performance of biolubricant is compared with the commercially available 15W40 oil. From the experimental results of tribometer, it is found that an optimal blend of both the lubricants provides better tribological performance compared to individual content of the blend. Also, from the results of Journal bearing test rig, it is observed that the maximum pressure and load carrying capacity of prepared biolubricant increases with the increase in journal speed.