Assessment of lubricity of compositions of fuel oil with biocomponents derived from rape-seed

Abstract This paper presents an assessment of tribological properties of compositions of fuel oil containing fatty acid methyl esters derived from rape-seed oil. An HFRR (high-frequency reciprocating rig – ball-on-flat) apparatus was used in this investigation. The studies were carried out for a steel–steel pair in the concentrated contact. The tribological properties were determined by motion resistances, wear and lubricant film concentration. The surfaces were analysed after tribological tests. The aim of the investigation was an attempt to obtain a correlation between wear quantities being measured and percentage content of bioadditives in fuel oil. It was found that at as little as 5% of the additive the coefficient of friction decreases by about 20% while wear decreases twofold relative to fuel oil, which may result from an increase in the stability of the lubricant film.