EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF STRUCTURAL FLOW UNITS IN PARAFFIN

Vlad Flaviu ZEGREAN

zegrean@fim.usv.ro

Emanuel DIACONESCU

emdi@fim.usv.ro

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Suceava, Romania

Abstract. A major problem in lubrication is the determination of flow parameters of the lubricant. Some theories derive the flow parameters by means of structural flow units, which could be molecules or clusters, depending on the liquid structure. Different results for the lubricant flow parameters yield when using these two models. This paper advances an experimental method to determine the type of paraffin structural flow units, by investigating a fast solidified paraffin layer via an atomic force microscope (AFM).

Keywords: lubrication, rheology, atomic force microscopy, paraffin, cluster