PERFORMANCE FEATURES OF THE SUNFLOWER SEEDS OIL AS A HYDRAULIC BIO FLUID UNDER VARIOUS NORMAL LOADS

Plant (vegetable) oils are renewable fluids. They have been developed to replace mineral-based fluids. Due to their distinguished features including eco-friendly properties and possibility of reducing the hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide emission when being used in the industrial processes or internal combustion (IC) engines, they are considered a sustainable source of biodegradable fluids. In this work, non-edible sunflower oil is investigated as a bio hydraulic fluid under various normal loads utilizing the four-ball tribotester. Considering the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM 4172-B) standard, all the experiments are conducted for different loads from 45 kg to 70 kg, the balk temperature was increased until 75°C, rotational speed to 1200 rpm and every experiment was run for one hour. Compared with the mineral-based fluid sample, the outcomes shown that the sunflower oil possesses sufficient properties (anti-wear and anti-friction) especially under lower than 60 kg as a normal load. The results also shown that the sunflower oil is capable to be utilized as a hydraulic fluid.