Influence of Nano-Lubrication On Tribological Behavior of AZ91 Magnesium Alloy Under Fretting Condition

Fretting wear is very common damage found in parts under small-amplitude motion or vibration. Nano-lubrication is a very efficient way to reduce the friction and wear of mating parts. Therefore, fretting study was conducted on magnesium alloy (AZ91) under lubricating conditions using poly alpha olefin grade 4 (PAO4) with Graphite nanoparticles (NPs) (GNP) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) NPs as lubricant additives. The experimental results reveal that the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear volume were reduced by 76% and 28%, respectively, using GNP and by 28% and 20%, respectively, using h-BN NPs. At optimal concentration of NPs, the effect of load on COF and wear was also investigated in this study. Wear volume and COF increases with increasing load. The performance of GNP was observed to be better as compared to h-BN NPs, which suggests its use as a lubricant additive in PAO4 as lubricated fretting conditions for AZ91 alloy. However, h-BN NPs perform well under higher loads.