Jun Qu

Antiwear performance and mechanism of an oil-miscible ionic liquid as a lubricant additive.

An ionic liquid (IL) trihexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate has been investigated as a potential antiwear lubricant additive. Unlike most other ILs that have very low solubility in nonpolar fluids, this IL is fully miscible with various hydrocarbon oils. In addition, it is thermally stable up to 347 °C, showed no corrosive attack to cast iron in an ambient environment, and has excellent wettability on solid surfaces (e.g., contact angle on cast iron <8°). Most importantly, this phosphonium-based IL has demonstrated effective antiscuffing and antiwear characteristics when blended with lubricating oils. For example, a 5 wt % addition into a synthetic base oil eliminated the scuffing failure experienced in neat oil and, as a result, reduced the friction coefficient by 60% and the wear rate by 3 orders of magnitude. A synergistic effect on wear protection was observed with the current antiwear additive when added into a fully formulated engine oil. Nanostructure examination and composition analysis revealed a tribo-boundary film and subsurface plastic deformation zone for the metallic surface lubricated by the IL-containing lubricants. This protective boundary film is believed to be responsible for the ILs antiscuffing and antiwear functionality.

Development of the Cylindrical Wire Electrical Discharge Machining Process, Part 1: Concept, Design, and Material Removal Rate

Results of applying the wire Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) process to generate precise cylindrical forms on hard, difficult-to-machine materials are presented. The design of a precise, flexible, and corrosion-resistant underwater rotary spindle is first introduced. A detailed spindle error analysis identifies the major sources of error at different frequency spectrum. The spindle has been added to a conventional two-axis wire EDM machine to enable the generation of free-form cylindrical geometries. The mathematical model for material removal rate of the free-form cylindrical wire EDM process is derived. Experiments were conducted to explore the maximum material removal rate for cylindrical and 2D wire EDM of carbide and brass work-materials. Compared to the conventional 2D wire EDM of the same work-material, higher maximum material removal rates may be achieved in the cylindrical wire EDM, possibly due to better debris flushing condition.

Development of the Cylindrical Wire Electrical Discharge Machining Process, Part 2: Surface Integrity and Roundness

This study investigates the surface integrity and roundness of parts created by the cylindrical wire EDM process. A mathematical model for the arithmetic average surface roughness on the ideal surface of a cylindrical wire EDM workpiece is first derived. Effects of wire feed rate and part rotational speed on the surface finish and roundness for brass and carbide work-materials at high material removal rates are investigated. The pulse on-time and wire feed rate are varied to explore the best possible surface finish and roundness achievable by the cylindrical wire EDM process. This study has demonstrated that, for carbide parts, an arithmetic average surface roughness and roundness as low as 0.68 and 1.7 mm, respectively, can be achieved. Surfaces of the cylindrical EDM parts were examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to identify the macro-ridges and craters on the surface. Cross-sections of the EDM parts are examined using the SEM to quantify the sub-surface recast layers and heat-affected zones under various process parameters. This study has demonstrated that the cylindrical wire EDM process parameters can be adjusted to achieve either high material removal rate or good surface integrity and roundness. [DOI: 10.1115/1.1475989]

Fixed Abrasive Diamond Wire Saw Slicing of Single-Crystal Silicon Carbide Wafers

Abstract This article investigates the slicing of single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) with a fixed abrasive diamond wire. A spool-to-spool rocking motion diamond wire saw machine using a 0.22 mm nominal diameter diamond wire with 20 µm average size diamond grit was used. The effect of wire downfeed speed on wafer surface roughness and subsurface damage was first investigated. The surface marks generated by loose diamond grit and stagnation of the wire during the change of the wire-cutting direction were studied. The use of scanning acoustic microscopy (SAcM) as a nondestructive evaluation method to identify the subsurface damage was explored. Effects of using a new diamond wire on cutting forces and surface roughness were also investigated. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to examine the machined surfaces and wire wear. This study demonstrated the feasibility of fixed abrasive diamond wire cutting of SiC wafers and the usage of a SAcM to examine the subsurface damage.

Phosphonium-Organophosphate Ionic Liquids as Lubricant Additives: Effects of Cation Structure on Physicochemical and Tribological Characteristics

Our previous work suggested great potential for a phosphonium-organophosphate ionic liquid (IL) as an antiwear lubricant additive. In this study, a set of five ILs were carefully designed and synthesized, with identical organophosphate anions but dissimilar phosphonium cations, to allow systematic investigation of the effects of cation alkyl chain length and symmetry on physicochemical and tribological properties. Symmetric cations with shorter alkyl chains seem to increase the density and thermal stability due to closer packing. On the other hand, either higher cation symmetry or longer alkyl moieties induce a higher viscosity, though the viscosity index is dependent more on molecular mass than on symmetry. While a larger cation size generally increases an ILs solubility in nonpolar hydrocarbon oils, six-carbon seems to be the critical minimum alkyl chain length for high oil miscibility. Both the two ILs, that are mutually oil miscible, have demonstrated promising lubricating performance at 1.04% treat rate, though the symmetric-cation IL moderately outperformed the asymmetric-cation IL. Characterizations on the tribofilm formed by the best-performing symmetric-cation IL revealed the film thickness, nanostructure, and chemical composition. Results here provide fundamental insights for future molecular design in developing oil-soluble ILs as lubricant additives.

Synergistic Effects Between Phosphonium-Alkylphosphate Ionic Liquids and Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) as Lubricant Additives

Unique synergistic effects between phosphonium-alkylphosphate ionic liquids (ILs) and zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) are discovered when used together as lubricant additives, resulting in significant friction and wear reduction along with distinct tribofilm composition and mechanical properties. The synergism is attributed to the remarkably 30-70× higher-than-nominal concentrations of hypothetical new compounds (via anion exchange between IL and ZDDP) on the fluid surface/interface.

Nanoindentation characterization of surface layers of electrical discharge machined WC/Co

Abstract This study applies nanoindentation and other analysis techniques to investigate the influence of wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) process on the structure and properties of machined surface layers of WC–Co composites. Multiple indents were conducted on the cross-section of the surface recast layer, sub-surface heat-affected zone, and bulk material. The energy disperse X-ray spectrometry and X-ray diffraction were used to analyze the material compositions in the heat-affected zone and recast layer and to study the electrical spark eroded surface. The indents were inspected by scanning electron microscopy to distinguish between regular and irregular indents in these three regions. Irregular indents were caused by the porosity, soft matrix material, separation of grain boundaries, and thermal cracks caused by EDM process. The hardness and modulus of elasticity obtained from regular indents in bulk material and heat-affected zone were comparable to those of WC. It was found that the recast layer had lower hardness and modulus of elasticity than the bulk material and heat-affected zone.

TiO2 nanotube arrays grown in ionic liquids: high-efficiency in photocatalysis and pore-widening

Debris-free, long, well-separated TiO2 nanotube arrays were obtained using an ionic liquid (IL) as electrolyte. The high conductivity of IL resulted in fast pore widening and few contaminants from electrolyte decomposition leading to high photocatalytic efficiency in water splitting.

GRINDING WHEEL CONDITION MONITORING WITH HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL-BASED CLUSTERING METHODS

Hidden Markov model (HMM) is well known for sequence modeling and has been used for condition monitoring. However, HMM-based clustering methods are developed only recently. This article proposes a HMM-based clustering method for monitoring the condition of grinding wheel used in grinding operations. The proposed method first extract features from signals based on discrete wavelet decomposition using a moving window approach. It then generates a distance (dissimilarity) matrix using HMM. Based on this distance matrix several hierarchical and partitioning-based clustering algorithms are applied to obtain clustering results. The proposed methodology was tested with feature sequences extracted from acoustic emission signals. The results show that clustering accuracy is dependent upon cutting condition. Higher material removal rate seems to produce more discriminatory signals/features than lower material removal rate. The effect of window size, wavelet decomposition level, wavelet basis, clustering algorithm, and data normalization were also studied.

Oil-Soluble Polymer Brush Grafted Nanoparticles as Effective Lubricant Additives for Friction and Wear Reduction

The development of high performance lubricants has been driven by increasingly growing industrial demands and environmental concerns. Herein, we demonstrate oil-soluble polymer brush-grafted inorganic nanoparticles (hairy NPs) as highly effective lubricant additives for friction and wear reduction. A series of oil-miscible poly(lauryl methacrylate) brush-grafted silica and titania NPs were synthesized by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. These hairy NPs showed exceptional stability in poly(alphaolefin) (PAO) base oil; no change in transparency was observed after being kept at -20, 22, and 100 °C for ≥55 days. High-contact stress ball-on-flat reciprocating sliding tribological tests at 100 °C showed that addition of 1 wt % of hairy NPs into PAO led to significant reductions in coefficient of friction (up to ≈40 %) and wear volume (up to ≈90 %). The excellent lubricating properties of hairy NPs were further elucidated by the characterization of the tribofilm formed on the flat. These hairy NPs represent a new type of lubricating oil additives with high efficiency in friction and wear reduction.