WEAR DEBRIS DETECTION AND ANALYSIS OF AUTOMOTIVE

ENGINE LUBRICATING OIL

HAFIZUDDIN BIN SHARINGAT

UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

WEAR DEBRIS DETECTION AND ANALYSIS OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINE

LUBRICATING OIL

HAFIZUDDIN BIN SHARINGAT

B041110021

BMCA

Email: hafizd63@gmail.com

Draft Final Report

Projek Sarjana Muda II

Supervisor: PUAN SUSHELLA EDAYU BINTI MAT KAMAL

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

JUNE 2015

SUPERVISOR DECLARATION

“I hereby declare that I have read this thesis and in my opinion this thesis is sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Automotive) with Hons”

Signature: ...................................

Supervisor: PN SUSHELLA EDAYU BINTI MAT KAMAL

Date: ...................................

WEAR DEBRIS DETECTION AND ANALYSIS OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINE

LUBRICATING OIL

HAFIZUDDIN BIN SHARINGAT

This report is submitted in

fulfillment of the requirements for the award of

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Automotive) with Honours

Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal

Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

JUNE 2015

ii

DECLARATION

“I hereby declare that the work in this thesis is my own except for summaries and

quotations which have been duly acknowledged.”

Signature: ...................................

Author: HAFIZUDDIN BIN SHARINGAT

Date: ...................................

iii

DEDICATION

Special to my

beloved Mom and Dad

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah for give me strength and healthy in

completing this Projek Sarjana Muda (PSM) with the title of “Wear Debris Detection

and Analysis of Automotive Engine Lubricating Oil” until it was completed. All of

honours are just for Allah Azza Wajalla, the almighty.

Then, I want to express my sincere thanks to:

My beloved parents, Sharingat and Saimah. Thank you so much for your

affection, advices, guidance, instruction and help in all my life, your love is beyond any

words. Also all my beloved family for all their support.

My PSM supervisor, Puan Sushella Edayu binti Mat Kamal, I thank you for all

the reprimand and guidance as it is very helpful for me in completing this project. Thank

you very much for your time to share your great knowledge and great experience to me.

I also want to thank to all lecturers for the guidance, assistance and advice about the

project as PSM is one of the requirement to graduate.

Thanks to all my beloved friends that help me with the idea about this project.

They were very helpful. Last but not least, thank to all who had help me to do this

project, directly or indirectly to complete this project successfully. Thank you for the

support and encouragement.

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ABSTRACT

This study is about wear debris detection and analysis of automotive engine

lubricating oil. The purpose of this study was to investigate wear debris produced by the

sliding condition in automotive engine parts. Wear debris will be produced by the

friction between two sliding automotive parts. This debris will cause the defect on

automotive engine if not controlled properly. Thus, this study will helps the maintenance

engineer to schedule the overhauled of the engine and prepare the spares and

replacement of engine parts according to the amount and shape of wear debris. By using

pin-on-disc machine, wear test experiment was conducted. From wear test, the data of

coefficient of friction and friction force was collected from data logging system to be

analyzed. A material was being selected based on the material that used frequently for

automotive parts. The debris produced from the friction of the material selected and

rotating disc from this machine were collected for analysis. Scanning Electron

Microscopy (SEM) was used in analyzing the wear debris collected. The size of wear

debris was measured from the image scanned by SEM. EDX analysis software was used

to determine the composition of wear debris produced from wear test.

vi

ABSTRAK

Laporan ini mengenai kajian dan pengesanan serpihan besi pada minyak pelincir

enjin. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk mengkaji serpihan besi yang dihasilkan

oleh geseran yang berlaku pada bahagian-bahagian dalaman enjin. Serpihan besi terhasil

daripada geseran di antara dua bahagian dalam enjin. Serpihan ini akan menyebabkan

kerosakan pada enjin jika tidak dikawal dengan baik. Jadi, kajian ini akan membantu

jurutera penyelenggara untuk menjadualkan penukargantian dan menyediakan alat ganti

bahagian enjin berdasarkan jumlah atau rupa bentuk serpihan besi. Satu ujian geseran

telah dijalankan dengan menggunakan mesin pin-on-disc. Daripada ujian geseran

tersebut, data yang didapati daripada sistem pengumpulan data diambil untuk dianalisis.

Bahan yang digunakan sebagai bahan ujikaji dipilih berdasarkan bahan yang kerap

digunakan pada bahagian enjin. Serpihan yang dihasilkan dari geseran antara bahan

yang dipilih dengan cakera dari mesin ini telah diambil untuk dianalisis. Scanning

Electron Microscopy (SEM) telah digunakan untuk menganalisis serpihan besi yang

dikumpulkan. Saiz serpihan besi diukur daripada imej yang dihasilkan oleh mesin SEM.

EDX analysis software digunakan untuk mengenalpasti bahan serpihan besi yang

terhasil daripada ujian geseran.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.0 Background Study 1

1.1 Problem Statement 2

1.2 Objectives 2

1.3 Scope 3

1.4 Content Overview 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.0 Introduction 4

viii

CHAPTER

TITLE

PAGE

2.1 Fundamental of Wear Debris 5

2.2 Wear Debris Analysis 5

2.3 Wear Debris in Automotive Engine Lubricating

Oil

11

2.4 Pin On Disc 13

2.5 Technique in Analyzing Wear Debris

2.5.1 Ferrography

2.5.2 Scanning Electron Microscopy Approach

to Wear Debris Analysis

14

14

16

2.6 Coefficient of Friction 17

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 21

3.0 Introduction 21

3.1 Test Specimen 22

3.1.1 Test Specimen Parameter

3.1.2 Sample Preparation

23

24

3.2 Wear Test 25

3.2.1 Parameter of Wear Test

3.2.2 Wear Test

26

27

3.3 Determining Specific Wear Rate, k and

Coefficient of Friction

28

3.4 Collect Wear Debris 30

3.5 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) 31

3.6 Flow Chart 32

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 34

4.0 Introduction 34

4.1 Specific Wear Rate, k 35

ix

CHAPTER

TITLE PAGE

4.2 Coefficient of Friction 38

4.3 Wear Debris Analysis 40

4.3.1 Image of Weear Debris Scanned by SEM

4.3.2 Composition of Wear Debris

4.3.3 The Size of Wear Debris

41

42

52

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 57

5.1 Conclusion 57

5.2 Recommendation 58

REFERENCES 59

APPENDICES 63

x

LIST OF TABLES

NO. TITLE

PAGE

2.1 Metals of wear particles in automotive engine 11

3.1 The composition of aluminum alloy 22

3.2 The parameter of the pin-on-disc test 26

4.1 Mass of wear produced and specific wear rate, k 35

4.2 Image of wear debris 41

4.3 Composition of wear debris from first spot 43

4.4 Composition of wear debris from second spot 44

4.5 Composition of wear debris from third spot 45

4.6 EDX analysis for first spot of wear debris 46

4.7 EDX analysis for second spot of wear debris 48

4.8 EDX analysis for third spot of wear debris 50

4.9 Average size of wear debris 52

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

NO. TITLE

PAGE

2.1 Rubbing wear particles

(Source: Lovics and Dalley, 2005)

6

2.2 Cutting wear particles

(Source: Lentz and Toms, , http://www.gastopsusa.com 14 December

2014)

7

2.3 Spherical wear particles produced by sliding wear process

(Source: Hurricks, 1974)

8

2.4 Severe sliding wear particles

(Source: Fitch, 2013)

8

2.5 Case hardened steel gear and bearing wear particles

(Source: Lovics and Dalley, 2005)

10

2.6 Low and high alloy steel gear and bearing wear

(Source: Lovics and Dalley, 2005)

10

2.7 The schematic diagram of the Ferrographic Oil Analysis System

(Source: Lateef et al. 2009)

12

2.8 Schematic diagram of pin-on-disc 13

xii

2.9 Ferrogram

(Source: Al-Osaimy et al. 2013)

15

2.10 Example of Scanning Electron Microscope

(Source: Hafner, 2007)

16

2.11 Variation of friction coefficient with the variation of duration rubbing

and normal load (sliding velocity:1m/s,relative humidity:70%,

pair:aluminum-aluminum)

(Source: Nuruzzaman and Chowdhurry, 2012)

18

2.12 Variation of friction coefficient with the variation of normal load for

different material pair (sliding velocity: m/s, relative humidity:70%)

(Source: Nuruzzaman and Chowdhurry, 2012)

18

2.13 Variation of friction coefficient with the variation of duration of

rubbing and sliding velocity (normal load:7.5 N, relative humidity:

70%, pair: aluminum-aluminum)

(Source: Nuruzzaman and Chowdhurry, 2012)

19

2.14 Variation of friction coefficient with the variation of sliding velocity

for different material-pair (normal load:7.5 N, relative humidity:70%)

(Source: Nuruzzaman and Chowdhurry, 2012)

19

3.1 Aluminum rod 23

3.2 Schematic diagram of pin-on-disc machine 25

3.3 Wear Test 27

3.4 Wear debris collected by using filter paper 30

3.5 Schematic diagram of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) 31

3.6 Flow chart of the research 32

4.1 Mass loss at different load applied 36

4.2 Specific wear rate at different load applied 37

4.3 Variation of coefficient of friction with variation of time of sliding at

different load applied

38

4.4 Variation of coefficient of friction with variation of time of sliding at

different load applied

39

4.5 Wear debris for parameter 15 N load and 600 rpm speed by 42

xiii

magnification 500x

4.6 Wear debris for parameter 15 N load and 600 rpm speed by

magnification 1000x

44

4.7 Wear debris for parameter 15 N load and 600 rpm speed by

magnification 1500x

45

4.8 Graph of average size of wear debris against load applied at different

speed

56

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND STUDY

Wear appears as the gradual removal of material from contacting and rubbing

surfaces of solids during their relative sliding. The mechanism of wear involves

formation of debris particles. The particles have small sizes and different shapes. The

wear debris can be rolled over into cylindrical, spherical and needle-like particles. The

presence of wear debris between sliding surfaces affects frictional and wear behavior

significantly. In an automotive engine, wear debris frequently occurs especially on

sliding of piston and engine block. This debris can be removed by engine lubricating oil.

The excessive wear debris in automotive engine can cause the defect on the operation of

the engine. Thus, this research was carried out to investigate the wear debris reproduce

by the sliding condition in automotive engines. Most of the automotive engine parts use

aluminum as the material. Thus, aluminum rods are decided to be used in this research.

This rod were used for pin-on-disc test on tribological testing. The experiment was

2

conducted to collect wear debris by the sliding condition between the aluminum rod and

rotating disc. The wear debris produced then need to be analyzed.

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The condition of engine operation are related to the process of wear debris

generation and their morphology. Wear debris generated are harmful to the engine parts

if not controlled properly. So, classification of debris in different morphological classes

provided valuable information on the current state of tribosystems. Thus, this research of

wear debris detection and analysis of automotive engine lubricating oil will helps the

maintenance engineer to scheduled the overhauled of the spares and replacement of

engine parts.

1.2 OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this research was to conduct wear test experiment to reproduce

the sliding condition as in automotive engine. Then, the objective is to analyze the

pattern, size and type of wear debris produced by the wear test conducted. The

correlation between wear rate, coefficient of friction and wear debris need to be

investigated.

3

1.3 SCOPE

The scope of this research was to conduct tribological testing. Pin-on-disc

machine was used in this experiment. Aluminum rods with 12 mm diameter were used

as the material for this experiment. The main consideration in this experiment was to

collect wear debris produced from the experiment to investigate its correlation between

wear rate and coefficient of friction.

1.4 CONTENT OVERVIEW

This chapter shows the introduction of this research. It consists of problem

statement, objectives and scope of this research. Next chapter will describes about the

literature review of this this research. The previous study related to wear debris detection

and analysis of automotive engine lubricating oil will be described. Then, chapter 3 will

descibes the review methodology that had been planned in carry out this research.

Chapter 4 will described the results and discussion of the experiment. Lastly, chapter 5

will describes the conclusion and recommendation for this study.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter will describes the previous study related to wear debris detection

and analysis of automotive engine lubricating oil. This literature review will begin with

the fundamental of wear debris, the analysis step by previous study and necessary

machine and components used. Study on other previous projects are intended to ease the

progress of this research.

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2.1 FUNDAMENTAL OF WEAR DEBRIS

According to Alfred (2005), wear appears as gradual removal of a material from

contacting and rubbing surfaces of solids during their relative sliding. The mechanism of

wear involves formation of debris particles. The particles have small sizes and different

shapes. The wear debris can be rolled over into cylindrical, spherical and needle-like

particles. Particles are detached from rubbing surfaces and they form a more or less

continuous interfacial layer. They transmit forces, momentum and displacement at the

contact interface. The presence of wear debris between sliding surfaces affects frictional

and wear behaviour significantly.

The friction process elements operating in contact conditions always involves

heat generation and wear of their surfaces. Wear and frictional heat apart from fatigue,

fracture and corrosion are main factors which restrict a life time of machines and

mechanical devices. Numerous machine component parts must be taken out of service

not due to failure caused by exceedence of the limit stress but due to wear manifested in

removal of a material.

2.2 WEAR DEBRIS ANALYSIS

Sondhiya and Gupta (2012) said that wear debris analysis is well-known in

condition monitoring of tribosystem. The condition of machine operation are related to

the process of wear debris generation and finally to their morphology. Thus,

classification of wear debris in different morphological classes provided valuable

information on the current state of tribosystem. Metallic wear debris are differentiated

by their morphology into several classes. It has been found that each type of wear debris

has its own generation mechanism involving a specific wear process.

6

According to Lovicz and Dalley (2005), six basic wear particles types are

identified that generated through wear process. These types of particles including ferrous

and non-ferrous metal. There are Normal Rubbing Wear, Cutting Wear Particles,

Spherical Particles, Severe Sliding Particles, Bearing Wear Particles and Gear Wear

Particles. The particles are differentiated to each classes to determine their type of wear

and its source.

Normal Rubbing Wear happened when two parts/materials under load slide into

each other and causes wear of parts of the shear mixed layer. Rubbing wear particles

consists of flat platelets, generally 5 microns or smaller, although they may range up to

15 microns depending on equipment application. There should be little or no visible

texturing of the surface and the thickness should be one micron or less. In automotive

engine parts, this type of wear particles usually occurs in rotating shafts and valve seats.

Figure 2.1 shows the sample ofRubbing Wear particles.

Figure 2.1: Rubbing wear particles (Lovics and Dalley, 2005)

Cutting wear particles are generated from one surface penetrating others. There

are two ways to produce this type of wear. A component that relatively hard can become

misaligned of broken causing hardly sharpened edge to penetrating a softer surface.

Wear particles generated by this way is usually rough and larger about 2-5 microns wide

and 25-100 microns long. Next, the contaminants such as sand or wear debris from other

parts may become embedded in a soft wear surface likes tin alloy bearing. The abrasive

7

particles stand out and penetrate the opposing wear surface. The particles that produces

by this way are very fine wire-like particles. The thickness are about 25 microns and 5

microns long. Figure 2.2 shows the image of cutting wear particles.

Figure 2.2: Cutting wear particles (Lentz and Toms, n.d)

Bearing cracks are generating spherical particles. The presence of spherical

particles are good because it will gives signal of some problem in the engine might be

happens because they can be detected before any actual spalling occurs. Roller bearing

fatigue is not the only source of spherical metallic particles. They are known to be

generated from cavitation erosion and more importantly by the process of welding or

grinding. Spheres that produced by fatigue cracks can be compared to other mechanism

based on their size. This type of wear basically over 5 microns diameter that generated

by rolling fatigue. For spherical particles produced by welding, grinding and erosion are

normally over 10 microns in diameter. Figure 2.3 shows the sample image of spherical

wear particles.

8

Figure 2.3: Spherical wear particles produced by sliding wear process (Hurricks, 1974)

For severe sliding wear particles, this types of particles are identified by its

parallel striations on their surfaces. The size are basically more than 15 micron, with

length-to-width thickness ratio between 5 and 30 microns. Severe sliding wear particles

sometimes show evidence of temper colour which may change the appearance after heat

treatment process. Figure 2.4 shows the image of severe sliding particles. The parallel

striations on the surface of the particles indicate the sliding motion happened.

Figure 2.4: Severe sliding wear particles (Fitch, 2013)