Tribological Properties of Friction Pairs in Lubricant Contaminated with Particles under High Temperature

A liquid–solid lubricant with sand particles of different sizes and concentrations is prepared in advance. The viscosity of the lubricant is measured by a capillary viscometer to determine its relationship to the concentration or size of the sand particles. The relationships between friction and concentration or size of the sand particles are also identified with a UMT2 tribometer. Results indicate that the size of sand particles plays an important role in the lubrication performance; when the size of sand particles is 1–5 μm, the friction coefficient of the liquid–solid lubricant is reduced at low concentration and low load. Contaminant concentration greatly influences the tribological behavior of such a lubricant. The failure probability of the part surface decreases with a reduction in particle concentration; moreover, a high temperature aggravates the friction and wear of this surface. The friction coefficient is 0.14 at 200°C, which is well above the friction coefficient at room temperature (0.078), and the wear volume also increases by 30% compared to the normal temperature. When the temperature is 300°C the wear volume is two times that under room temperature.