Comparative study of the thermal properties of 10W30 engine oil at various temperatures by addition of nano-particles.

Engine oils are used as coolants and lubricants in different types of vehicles with the aim of maintaining the temperature of the engine and reducing friction between parts and their abrasion. The thermal properties of engine oil are the key parameters when selecting engine oil for a vehicle. This study is carried out to compare the effect of Fullerene (C₆₀), TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ nano-particles with different mass fractions on the thermal properties of 10W30 engine oil. In this study, the effect of TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ nano-particles concentrations 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt% and fullerene (C₆₀) nano-particle concentration 0.01 wt% on 10W30 engine oil were examined at different temperature values (30 - 120 ?). The nano-fluids were prepared using direct mixing method. A surfactant (CTAB-0.05 wt%) was used to prevent the agglomeration. As the reference CTAB-engine oil sample also prepared for the measurements. The thermal properties namely, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and volumetric heat capacity of the base fluids and nano-fluids were measured using the Flucon LAMBDA thermal conductivity meter (TECHNE UCAL 400⁺ dry-block calibrator, Germany) while flash point was measured using the flash point tester (Anton Paar PMA500, Germany). The experimental results reveal that the thermal properties of engine oil with TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ were significantly enhanced when increasing the mass fractions in contrast to fullerene-based nano-fluid was not shown such enhancements.