Correlation of viscosities of vegetable oil blends with selected esters and hydrocarbons

• DOI: 10.1007/s11746-002-0620-5
• Publication Date: 2006-11-22T11:13:46Z
• Authors: S. Z. Erhan; S. Asadauskas; A. Adhvaryu
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

AbstractBlending is often used to reduce the viscosity of vegetable oil lubricants. Experimental rheological results were compared with traditional blending charts and calculation methods. Kinematic viscosities of 90% oleic sunflower, canola, and soybean oils blended with adipates, oleates, polyalphaolefins, and mineral oil were determined at 40°C using capillary viscometers. Blending charts related the viscosities to blend composition with 5% inaccuracy compared with more than 10% deviation made by the cubic equation of Kendall and Monroe. Even more accurate and simpler correlations could be derived. A semilog relationship between viscosities and composition was more accurate than a cubic model. Higher accuracy was also achieved when relating viscosities to volume fractions rather than to weight or mole fractions. Mineral oil blends did not follow the observed rules.