F+L Week 2015 | 10-13 March 2015
39
II and III oils leads to separation and reduced
storage stability of the finished product.
In the present study, base oil selectivity was
studied in two products: rust preventive and
quenching oils. In rust preventive oils, various
additives, such as film forming agents, rust
inhibitors andwetting agents were studied in
different combinations of base oils. Storage
stability and performance tests, such as the
ASTMB-117 salt spray test, ASTMD-1748
humidity cabinet test acid atmosphere resis-
tance tests, were conducted to understand the
effect of additive polarity in base oils. Similarly,
quenching oils and various polar additives
were studied in different base oil combinations.
These quenching oil blends were evaluated for
oxidation stability, storage stability and cooling
performance. Authors havemade an attempt
to correlate the hydrocarbon composition of
base oils with various critical properties of rust
preventive and quenching oils.
SimmiDattacurrentlyworksas
theseniorresearchofficeratthe
Research&Development
Centre, IndianOilCorporation
Limited(IOCL),Faridabad, India.
SimmireceivedaPhDfromtheFreieUniversität,
Berlin,Germany(2004-2008) intheareaof
synthesis,characterisationandapplicationof
transitionmetal,alkalineearthmetaland
lanthanidecomplexes. Inaddition,shereceived
anMScat I.I.T. inBombay, India(2002-2004),
specialising in inorganicchemistry.
Simmi hasmore than six years of research
experience in the area of metalworkingoils
and specialties such as neat cuttingoils, water
miscible cutting fluids, quenchingoils and rust
preventive oils, aswell as 15 publications.
DegradationStudiesof
Lubricants forWindTurbine
ApplicationusingFourier
TransformedInfrared
Spectroscopy
Wednesday 11 March 14:30 | 15:00
ABHIRUCHI GADGIL (PRESENTER)
ANDNARASIMALU SRIKANTH
Nanyang Technological University
Lubricant degradation is a very important
problemwith regards to high-cost applications
likemarine, aerospace, etc. Although a lot of
studies have been done to study the effect of
degradation on performance properties, very
few studies have been done to decipher the
actual underlyingmechanisms. That said, due
to their multi-component nature, properties of
lubricants are difficult to compute analytically.
The current study focuses on the lubricants in
offshore wind turbines, which see extreme con-
ditions of load, temperature and contaminants
like water, salt, etc.
The evolution of the health of lubricants
and the related understanding in terms of
chemical species is very narrow due to the
complex chemical structure. Current lubricant
inline analysis only recognises certain unwant-
ed species like water, etc., but the quantifi-
cation, and understanding of degradation
of a particular type of lubricant has not been
studied. The present study uses Fourier Trans-
formed Infrared Spectroscopy to differentiate
between the varied oil compositions and
its ageing characteristics, under constraints
of a wind turbine. The study will take into
consideration the parameters of dynamic
loads, temperature conditions and lubricant
chemistry to decipher markers in the Fourier
Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy under
these specialised conditions. An evolution of
these markers will enhance the current inline
monitoring systems and help early failure
detection of lubricants.
Abhiruchi Gadgil is a PhD
student at the Energy Research
Institute at NanyangTechnolog-
ical University (NTU), Singapore.
Her scope of work includes
understanding the degradationmechanisms of
lubricants under different constraints and
comingupwithmethodologies for faster
evaluations. Currently, she isworkingon
specific applications of wind turbines to
evaluate the effects of offshore conditions on
lubricant degradation ingearboxes and
drivetrains.
Narasimalu Srikanth is the programdirector
and senior scientist leading the offshore-re-
lated studies at the Energy Research Institute
at NTU specific to renewables. His area of
research interest is in tribology, steel and
lubricant failure analysis, conditionmonitoring
and drive train studies of electromechanical
systems.
