SAE Tech.

Paper 2023-24-0102

Twenty years of engine tribology research:

Some important lessons to learn

Boris Zhmud,(1) Urban Morawitz,(2) Daniel Basiri,(1) Daniel Schulz(2)

(1)Tribonex AB, Uppsala, Sweden

(2)Ford Research Center, Cologne, Germany

 The beginning of engine tribology research

The term "Tribology” was introduced by Prof. Peter Jost in the 1960.
The first ICE were built still in the early 1800s.
The first compressed charge 4-stroke ICE was patented in 1876 by Nicolaus Otto.

Hence, engineers had been dealing with various engine “tribology” issues
such as friction, wear, deposit formation, heat management, fatigue, etc
for more than a century before the term “tribology” came to our vocabulary.
 Lowering powertrain friction has been
an important target over the past decades

Over the past decade 2010-2020, fuel economy

for Ford Focus have improved by 10%:
7.6/4.9/5.9 L/100 km for MY2011 (1.6L i4 GDI)
6.9/4.5/5.4 L/100 km for MY2021 (1.5L i3 GDI)
2-3% of the change is attributable to improved
engine tribology.
Estimated friction reduction potential for a V6 gasoline engine
under partial load operation (1400 RPM, BMEP = 2.1 bar)
 Motor oil evolution has been
an important contributor to fuel economy
 Engine friction reduction

Nm Torque curve, 1.6 L GDI Nm Friction torque, 1.6 L GDI

300 30
Savings achievable by
“surface engineering”
200 20

100 10
Savings achievable
by oil “thinning”
0 0
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
rpm Note 10:1 scale on y-axis!
rpm
but this is also achievable
by smart “oil engineering”
 Engine trend: Downsize and charge

• Fewer cylinders
• Smaller displacement
• Same power

Ford Escape XLS 2004 Ford Escape 2023

3.0L V6, 200 hp, 270 Nm Consumer
Higher energyvehicles
density i3, 1.5 L, 180 hp, 270 Nm
closing the gap with
BMEP = 12 bar super sport cars BMEP = 24 bar

Koenigsegg Agera 5.0 L bi-turbo, 1000 hp, 1100 Nm

BMEP = 28 bar
Engine Trends: Automatic stop-start
Good deeds, bad consequences

Stop-Start Vehicles
Hybrid Electric Vehicles
Plug-in Hybr. Electric Veh.
Battery Electric Vehicles
Natural Gas Vehicles
Fuel CEll Vehicles
Propane AutoGas Vehicles
CONVentional Vehicles

New problems:
- Suboptimal temperature
- Water contamination
- Fuel dilution

Bearings must withstand 300,000 instead of 30,000 start-stops

Lower viscosity, lower SAPS lubricants

A trend towards low visc and low SAPS oils:

Ford WSS-M2C948-B Ford WSS-M2C913-A

SAE 5W-20 SAE 5W-30

SAPS: SA (sulfated ash), P (phosphorus), S (sulfur)

 Downsides of oil thinning
Wear
Twofold reduction in HTHS viscosity => inadequate oil film thickness
Twofold increase in power density => risk of local overheating

Jon Vilardo, PCMO Product Manager, Lubrizol:

“Lower can have a negative impact on
durability; the protective oil film is less
robust, or under the most extreme loading
conditions, non-existent.”
Simon Tung, Global OEM Technology
Manager, Vanderbilt:
“Lower viscosity grade oil might not be
able to have enough oil film thickness to
protect engine wear as higher viscosity
grade oils.”

See also: Peter Lee & Boris Zhmud, Lubricants 2021, 9(8), 74
 When low viscosity sounds a problem
Top ring wear (2L Ecoboost GDI engine)

Liner wear (2L EcoBoost GDI engine)

Lee & Lochte, Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine wear test development, Sander, et al. Potentials and risks of reducing friction with future
CRC Project No. AVFL-28, SwRI, San Antonio, Texas, October 9, 2017 ultra-low-viscosity engine oils. MTZ Worldwide 79 (2018) 21.
 How to measure engine friction?
1. Component test rigs
2. Non-pressurized motored engine test rigs, eg for tear-down tests
3. Pressurized motored engine test rigs
4. Firing engine, eg floating liner and specially instrumented test rigs

Engine tribologist’s uncertainty principle:

“The more realistic the test, the worse measurement accuracy”

Motored engine test rig Crankshaft friction test rig

(Ford Research Center, Cologne, Germany). (Ford Research Center, Cologne, Germany).
 Engines and lubricants in study

Property EcoBoost 1.6L Dragon 1.5L

i4 GTDI i3 GTDI
Max power, hp 197 200
Max torque, Nm 270 290
Bore 79 84
Stroke 81 90
CR 10:1 11:1

Properties 0W-12 0W-16 5W-20 5W-30 10W-40

Kin.visc.@100oC, cSt 6.1 7.3 8.6 11.9 14.9
Kin.visc.@40oC, cSt 30.7 39.4 50.7 74.7 97.7
HTHS@150oC, cP 2.1 2.4 2.8 3.3 3.8
Effect of viscosity grade on friction
(1.6L i4 EcoBoost)

10W-40 30oC 10W-40

90oC
5W-30 5W-30
5W-20 5W-20
0W-16 0W-16
0W-12 0W-12

90oC
DAMB valvetrain: friction and wear
(1.6L i4 EcoBoost)

30oC
90oC

DAMB valvetrain:

- Sensitive to oil viscosity

- Demanding to EP/AW additives
Effect of cylinder bore and valvetrain technology

Dragon 1.5L i3
- Thermally sprayed bores
- RFF valvetrain BMEP @ 35oC

TORQUE (Nm)
BMEP @ 90oC

FMEP @ 35oC

FMEP @ 90oC

ENGINE SPEED (RPM)

 Effect of bore technology
in the reciprocating friction & wear tester

Scaling: viscosity x speed = const

See also:
Tomanik et al. SAE Tech. Paper 2021-01-1214
Zhmud et al. SAE Tech. Paper 2021-01-1217
 From ICE to electric
No power cylinder systems, no combustion, but still a lot of moving parts
Hence, there’s a lot of work for tribologists

1. Higher speeds, up to 30,000 rpm

2. High power density
3. High load at low speed due to “instant torque”
4. Parasitic currents, electrically induced bearing damage (EIBD)
5. Yellow metal corrosion
 Conclusions
An enormous progress in understanding the engine tribology has been achieved
over the past decades. Tribological optimization has become an important tool in
the engineer’s belt leading to improved energy efficiency of modern ICEs.
Managing complexity is increasingly difficult and the total system approach is
a must. Lubricants are a critical component in supporting the evolution of vehicles.
The move towards the International Fluids Consortium (IFC) model is hoped to
help establish and maintain global fluid standards that keep pace with automotive
advancements. Many lessons learnt in the process will serve a solid foundation for
troubleshooting tribology-related problems in future ICEs run on alternative fuels,
as well as in electrified and fully electric powertrains.