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This study aims to investigate the tribological characteristics of a Napier-type second piston ring against a cylinder liner in the presence of graphene nano-additives mixed into 5W40 fully synthetic engine oil.

Wear tests were carried out in the boundary lubrication condition using a reciprocating tribometer, and real engine tests were performed using a single spark ignition Honda GX 270 test engine for a duration of 75 h.

The experimental results of the tribometer tests revealed that the nano-additives formed a layer on the rubbed surfaces of both the piston ring and the cylinder liner. However, this layer was only formed at the top dead center of the cylinder liner during the engine tests. The accumulation of carbon (C) from the graphene was heavily detected on the rubbed surface of piston ring/cylinder liner, mixed with other additive elements such as Ca, Zn, S and P. Overall, the use of graphene nano-additives in engine oil was found to improve the frictional behavior in the boundary and mixed lubrication regimes. Abrasive wear was found to be the main mechanism occurring on the surface of both piston rings and cylinder liners.

Though many researchers have discussed the potential benefits of graphene as a nano-additive in oil to reduce the friction and wear in laboratory tests using tribometers, to date, no actual engine tests have been performed. In this paper, both tribometer and real engine tests were performed on a piston ring and cylinder liner using a fully formulated oil with and without graphene nano-additives in the boundary lubrication condition. It was found that a graphene nano-additive plays an active role in lowering the coefficient of friction and increasing surface protection and lubrication by forming a protective layer on the rubbing surfaces.

Wear on internal combustion engines is a loss of material that occurs with the rubbing of the materials in contact with each other and significantly reduces the economic life of the engine. Even the smallest precaution that can be taken to prevent friction and wear in the engines can provide economical savings in very large quantities. Internal combustion engines are widely utilized in modem automobiles. Around 10 per cent of the total fuel energy is dissipated to heat due to mechanical friction, among which 20 per cent is caused by the contact between the cylinder liner and the piston rings.

In this study, real piston ring-cylinder specimens were tested with reciprocating tribometer by using five different nanoparticles added to engine oil to investigate their wear and friction behavior.

With regard to the experiments, it has been found that the best results were determined by TiO₂ and single-walled carbon nanotubes according to boron nitride, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoparticles added to the engine oil, respectively. At the end of the tests, different wear mechanisms have been determined after the surface analyses on the piston ring and cylinder liner surface, and abrasive wear has been observed as the main wear mechanism.

This paper has an originality with regard to adding different nanoparticles into the commercial engine oil.

This study aims to find out friction and wear characteristics of graphene and graphene coating deposited by the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process on Honda GX270 engine (nodular cast iron) piston rings experimentally investigated under boundary lubricated conditions.

This study consists of two stages: tribotest and engine tests. First test was conducted through a reciprocating tribotest machine and second test was conducted through an engine bench with a duration of 75h. Engine piston ring was coated with graphene by two different methods: transfer method and direct CVD method.

Graphene has been demonstrated to be a potential and promising candidate for wear- and scratch-resistant coating because it is the thinnest, lightest and strongest known nanomaterial. In this case, the ability of a mono-layer graphene film to withstand high pressure differences (6 atm) indicates its mechanical robustness. It can effectively prevent or reduce mechanical failure by strengthening and toughening the loaded surface as well as by transferring the stress throughout the structure. The positive tribological outcomes of the graphene reinforced material under various dynamic loads revealed the potential of graphene-based coatings in macro - and micro-tribology.

This study fulfils an identified need to study for automotive industry a coating which is wear and scratch resistant.