GEAR OIL INFLUENCES ON EFFICIENCY OF GEAR AND FUEL ECONOMY OF CARS

The fuel consumption of a car depends on a set of parameters only partly related to tribology. Their influence is much more pronounced than that of the lubricant. Only the mechanical losses can be decreased by lubricant-related measures. Therefore, the fuel economy improvement that possibly might be realized is rather limited, especially when taking into account the rather high efficiency of gears. When evaluating the influence of viscosity on fuel consumption, the so-called effective viscosity must be taken into account. This is most important for non-Newtonian oils. Reducing the gear oil viscosity by one SAE viscosity grade will result in fuel consumption reductions of 0.2-1.5 per cent at high temperatures and 0.4-2.5 per cent at low temperatures. Using friction modifiers in gear oils, fuel consumption reductions of between 1.0 and 6.0 between 1.0 and 5.1 per cent by other gear oils are possible, considering different driving programmes. Tests with a real automobile gear resulted in fuel economy improvements of the order of magnitudes of 1 per cent by other gear oils. The results of measurements confirm in principle the calculated estimations. (A)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09544070
• Corporate Authors:

  PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING PUBLICATIONS LTD

  NORTHGATE AVENUE
  BURY ST EDMUNDS, SUFFOLK  United Kingdom  IP32 6BW
• Authors:
  • BARTZ, W K
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 189-96
• Serial:
  • Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering
  • Volume: 214
  • Issue Number: D2
  • Publisher: Sage Publications Limited
  • ISSN: 0954-4070
  • EISSN: 2041-2991
  • Serial URL: http://pid.sagepub.com/content/current

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic efficiency; Fuel consumption; Oils; Transmissions; Vehicles
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency
• ITRD Terms: 5911: Efficiency; 232: Fuel consumption; 4961: Oil; 1333: Transmission (veh); 1255: Vehicle
• Subject Areas: Economics; Energy; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00793705
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jun 15 2000 12:00AM