Influence of counterbody surface hardness of a friction pair “steel-steel” on tribological behaviour of zinc nanopowder in oil

Abstract

This paper presents the wear analysis of sliding friction pair “Ball-on-Disk” lubricated with pure mineral oil and the same oil modified with zinc nanoparticles. Fric-tion pair elements, produced from different hardness struc-tural steel of 0.8% carbon content, abraded differently when operated with non-modified and modified oil. When lubricating with modified oil, the width of wear path of friction pairs with tempered steel disk (63 HRC) increased by 20.5% comparing to non-modified lubricant; whereas using the thermally non-treated disk (185 HB) the oil with zinc nanoparticles reduces the wear path by 10%.
Lubricating effect of oil with zinc nanoparticles can be explained by the interaction of zinc nanoparticles and the oxygene in oil and also by the interaction of me-chanical particles and friction surfaces.