Enhancement in the Friction and Wear Resistance of Low Carbon Chromium Steel and Load Carrying Capability of MIL-PRF-23699 Grade Lubricant Using h-BN Nanoadditives for Aerospace Applications

Abstract

The frictional coefficient of LCCS with MIL-PRF-23699 grade lubricant was high, which led to an increase in heat generation and temperature rise of the lubricant in aircraft parts such as the accessory gearbox and engine gearbox. To overcome this, the present study proposed the use of h-BN nanoparticles as an additive with MIL-PRF-23699 grade lubricant. To improve the stability and suspension of the h-BN nanoparticles in the NL, the NL was prepared with h-BN nanoparticles and various surfactants. The properties were evaluated for both BL and NL. The tribological experiments were carried out using a four-ball tester, a shear stability tester, and a Reichert tester. The h-BN NL resulted in a 16% reduction in WSD when compared with the BL. The LWI of h-BN NL was increased by 7.44% compared with BL. In the shear stability test, h-BN NL showed 93% better shear stability than the BL. The CoF was reduced by 13% with the h-BN NL in the Reichert test. The experimental results indicated that the h-BN nanoparticles with MIL-PRF-23699 grade lubricant had better tribological properties for aerospace applications.

Keywords:

• Nanoadditives
• h-BN
• lubricant
• tribology
• aerospace

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the Aeronautical Development Agency, Bangalore, Ministry of Defense, Govt. of India for allowing publication of this paper. The authors appreciate National Aerospace Limited, Bangalore, CSIR Lab for the support provided for conducting experiments. Also, the authors would like to thank S. Arulvel for his support during this research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).