CHAPTER 2

TYPES AND
WS Robertson CEng MlnstF
Esso Petroleum Company Ltd
PROPERTIES OF
LUBRICANTS
This chapter outlines the main types oflubricants and covers
some of the more important lubricant properties and tests,
finishing with engine tests. With each test description there
is a note on any relevant additives or classification systems.

TYPES OF LUBRICANTS
Lubricants can be fluids (gases or liquids) or solids.

Fluids
Gases are not always considered as lubricants, but air
lubricated bearings are becoming increasingly important.
However, air for specialist applications may not be a cheap
lubricant. For hydrostatic spindIe bearings on machine
tools, for instance. air cleaned and dried to adequate
standards can cost as much as three times as much as
lubricating oil.
Lubricating oil-hydrocarbon oil produced from cmde
petroleum-is of course the most common of alllubricants.
Hydrocarbon oils are used because:
a. They are widely available in a range of viscosities that
gives a wide choice of load. speed and temperature con-
ditions to the designer,
b. They give a low, consistent coefficient of friction and
have low compressibility.
c. They are reasonably effective in carrying away heat
from bearing surfaces.
d. They are inexpensive lubricants.
Hydrocarbon lubricating oils fall into two main cate-
gones:
Paraffinic oils have high pour points (because of the wax
they contain), high viscosity indices, and good resistance
to oxidation.
Naphthenic oils have low pour points and relatively low
viscosity indices and oxidation stability.
The above properties are described later in the chapter,
Synthetic lubricants (esters, phosphates, silicones) may
cost up to ten times as much as hydrocarbon oils but they
are necessary for some specialised applications, like aircraft
gas turbines where resistance to degradation at tempera-
tures of up to perhaps 300°C is necessary.

G. G. Evans et al. (eds.), Lubrication in Practice 15

© Esso Petroleum Company Limited and the Macmillan Press Limited 1972
LUBRICATION IN PRACTICE
Water is much better at carrying away heat than are
hydrocarbon oils, but its low viscosity and its relatively
high freezing point and low boiling point greatly limits its
use as a lubricant.
Solids and semi-solids
Grease is the most important solid or semi-solid lubricant,
and it is normally made from hydrocarbon oils thickened
with metallic soaps, in consistencies ranging from slightly
tbickened liquid to block-hard (see Chapter 12). Although
grease will not carry heat away from a bearing as liquid
lubricant will, it can be an effective seal against dirt and
water reaching the bearing surfaces. It can also provide a
reservoir of lubricant in a bearing lubricated at long
intervals, or even sealed for life.
Other solid lubricants, functioning in a different way.
include molybdenum disulpbide and graphite. These
may be used on their own or in combination with oils and
greases. Chemical coatings on bearing metals and bearing-.
made from plastics such as PTFE can also be included in
this category.
The remainder of tbis chapter is concemed only with
conventional industriallubricants made from hydrocarbon
oils, either alone or with additives to enhance their natural
properties.
PROPERTIES OF LUBRICANTS
The first, obvious, property of a lubricant is its ability to
keep moving surfaces apart, in all the conditions of pressure,
temperature, the presence of contaminants and so on, to
which they may be subjected.
Secondly, most lubricants also need to cool, by carrying
away heat generated at the bearing surfaces or reaching
them from an outside source (as the heat of combustion of
a gas turbine reaches the turbine bearings).
Thirdly, a lubricant should be stable enough to keep
on doing its job for its designed lifetime, whether that is
seconds on a once-through mist lubricated bearing or
ten or more years in a steam turbine. Lastly, the lubricant
should protect the surfaces with which it comes in contact
against corrosion from the atmosphere, or from corrosive
products generated in the equipment. like acid gases from
an IC engine.
TESTS ON LUBRICANTS
Purpose of tests
Measurement of the properties of lubricants can show
lubricant composition and can indicate, to some extent,
lubricant performance, but hydrocarbon oils are too
complex for this type of testing to be at all a complete guide
to behaviour in practice. Laboratory engine tests and,
finally, controlled field trials in the actual equipment to be
lubricated are needed to prove the suitability of a particular
oil for a particular use.
The chemical composition of the oil makes a great
difference to lubricant performance, and the additives
used with the oils also considerably affect performance.
16
However, tests that indicate the presence of particular
types of oil or additives still need to be supplemented by
performance tests. Tests for composition are really most
useful for process control in ensuring that, once a specifica-
tion has been established for a lubricant. the lubricant is
always produced with as near the same composition as is
necessary.
Tests and specifications
There are two kinds of specifications for lubricants:
manufacturing specifications just mentioned above, set
up by makers to keep their products consistent in composi-
tion, and therefore in quality; and performance specifica-
tions set up by standards institutions like the British
Standards Institution, by equipment makers like Cater-
pillar or F ord, or by govemments, primarily for military
use.
Performance specifications range from the Society of
Automotive Engineers crankcase and gear oil classifica-
tions, wbich only specify a range ofviscosities, to advanced
military specifications like MIL-L-2104C for engine oils.
Specifications of this last kind are built up from standard
laboratory and engine tests. Tests on lubricants have to be
carefully standardised because few of the tests measure
fundamental properties independent of the test method.
If the method or the equipment used for the test is changed,
the result will change too.
Specifications will always give either an upper or lower
limit or a range of properties for each test result, because
no production lubricant can be made to give exactly the
same results every time, nor are the tests used capable of
exact repeatability every time- there must be a range
within wh ich the results can fall.
SPECIFIC TESTS ON LUBRICANTS
Various standard tests are mentioned in this section.
None are described in detail because full technical in-
formation on all of them can be found in the relevant
Institute of Petroleum 1 and the American Society for
Testing and Materials publications 2 • and in other publica-
tions 3 • 4 that describe the significance of tests more fully
than is possible in this chapter.
Viscosit)'
Viscosity and lubrication theory has been covered in
Chapter 1. Some basic points are repeated here to lead into
a description of viscosity test methods.
Viscosity, a measure of resistance to flow in a fluid. is
the most important of all lubricant properties. Viscosity
increases with increasing molecular weight and changes
rapidly with changes in temperature. Heating lubricating
oillowers and cooling raises its viscosity.
Design calculations require knowledge of dynamic
viscosity. In streamline flow conditions, dynamic vis-
cosity is defined as the tangential force on unit area of
one of two planes parallel to each other, separated by unit
distance, and moving with uniform unit velocity relative to
each other, the space between being filled with fluid. The
SI unit is Nsjm 2 but the centipoise (10- 3 Nsjm 2 ) is normally
used.