The behaviour of lubricants at operational conditions, such as at high temperatures and pressures, is a topic of great industrial interest. In particular, viscosity and the viscosity-pressure ...relation are especially important for applications and their determination by computational simulations is very desirable. In this thesis we evaluate methods to compute these quantities based on fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations which are computationally demanding but also have the potential to be most accurate. We tested several molecules that are used as lubricants, such as 9,10-dimethyloctadecane, main component of PAO-2 base oil, which was used as the main lubricant for our simulations. The methods used for the viscosity simulations are the Green-Kubo equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD-GK), the direct computation of viscosity from shear during non-equilibrium MD (NEMD) and the use of confined NEMD, where the fluid is confined within explicitly defined iron oxide wall surfaces, at pressures of up to 1.0 GPa and various temperatures (40-150 degrees Celsius). We present the theory behind these methods and investigate how the simulation parameters affect the results obtained, to ensure viscosity convergence with respect to the simulation intervals and all other parameters. We show that by using each method in its regime of applicability, we can achieve good agreement between simulated and measured values. NEMD simulations at high pressures captured zero shear viscosity successfully, while at 40 degrees Celsius EMD-GK is only applicable to pressures up to 0.3 GPa, where the viscosity is lower. In NEMD, longer and multiply repeated simulations reduce the standard deviation of viscosity, which is essential at lower pressures. Additionally, by using confined NEMD simulations, it was demonstrated that the film thickness of the fluid affects viscosity, and as we increase the number of lubricant molecules, we approach the viscosity value of the bulk fluid derived from NEMD simulations. Another aspect of these methods is the choice of the utilised force field for the atomic interactions. This was investigated by selecting three different commonly used force fields. We have explored several methods for calculating viscosity and we obtained results of particular industrial interest.
Synthetic esters are used as lubricants for applications at high temperatures, but their development can be a trial and error process. In this context, molecular dynamics simulations could be used as ...a tool to investigate the properties of new lubricants, in particular viscosity. We employ nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations to predict bulk Newtonian viscosities of a set of mixtures of two esters, di(2-ethylhexyl) sebacate (DEHS) and di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) at 293 and 343 K as well as equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) and NEMD at 393 K and compare these to experimental measurements. The simulations predict mixture densities within 5% of the experimental values, and we are able to retrieve between 99% and 75% of the experimental viscosities for all ranges of temperature. Experimental viscosities show a linear trend which we are able to capture using NEMD at low temperature and EMD at high temperature. Our work shows that, using EMD and NEMD simulations, and the workflows we developed, we can obtain reliable estimates of the viscosities of mixtures of industrially relevant ester-based lubricants at different temperatures.
The behavior of lubricants at operational conditions, such as at high pressures, is a topic of great industrial interest. In particular, viscosity and the viscosity-pressure relation are especially ...important for applications and their determination by computational simulations is very desirable. In this study, we evaluate methods to compute these quantities based on fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, which are computationally demanding but also have the potential to be most accurate. We used the 9,10-dimethyloctadecane molecule, main component of PAO-2 base oil as the lubricant for our tests. The methods used for the viscosity simulations are the Green-Kubo equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD-GK) and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD), at pressures of up to 1.0 GPa and various temperatures (40-150 degrees Celsius). We present the theory behind these methods and investigate how the simulation parameters affect the results obtained, to ensure viscosity convergence with respect to the simulation intervals and all other parameters. We show that, by using each method in its regime of applicability, we can achieve good agreement between simulated and measured values. NEMD simulations at high pressures captured zero shear viscosity successfully; while at 40 degrees Celsius, EMD-GK is only applicable to pressures up to 0.3 GPa, where the viscosity is lower. In NEMD, longer and multiply repeated simulations improve the confidence interval of viscosity, which is essential at lower pressures. Another aspect of these methods is the choice of the utilized force field for the atomic interactions. This was investigated by selecting two different commonly used force fields.
The behaviour of confined lubricants at the atomic scale as affected by the interactions at the surface-lubricant interface is relevant in a range of technological applications in areas such as the ...automotive industry. In this paper, by performing fully atomistic molecular dynamics, we investigate the regime where the viscosity starts to deviate from the bulk behaviour, a topic of great practical and scientific relevance. The simulations consist of setting up a shear flow by confining the lubricant between iron oxide surfaces. By using confined Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD) simulations at a pressure range of 0.1-1.0 GPa at 100 °C, we demonstrate that the film thickness of the fluid affects the behaviour of viscosity. We find that by increasing the number of lubricant molecules, we approach the viscosity value of the bulk fluid derived from previously published NEMD simulations for the same system. These changes in viscosity occurred at film thicknesses ranging from 10.12 to 55.93 Å. The viscosity deviations at different pressures between the system with the greatest number of lubricant molecules and the bulk simulations varied from −16% to 41%. The choice of the utilized force field for treating the atomic interactions was also investigated.
Atomistic simulations show for the first time how the variation of a lubricant's film thickness affects viscosity and at what point it eventually becomes comparable with the bulk simulation of a lubricant, at different pressures and shear regimes.
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