Thin Oil Film Volatility and Its Mechanism

The evaporation loss of lubricating oils is an issue of particular importance in lubrication. It is known that the volatility of oil has a significant effect on oil consumption. Portions of oil can evaporate under high temperature conditions, potentially altering oil properties such as viscosity. In this paper, the volatility of the thin oil films was studied. Different kinds of oils were used for the test. The work was to investigate the effect of the different working conditions on the volatility of lubricating oil. Conditions such as the oil film thickness, contacting surface area and the surface material were studied. Encouraging results were obtained with respect to the effect of working conditions on the volatility of thin oil films. This emphasizes that the working conditions play a significant role in the evaporation rate and an appropriate set hand to be considered to minimize the loss.