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Chemical Engineering Communications, Vol.202, No.7, 982-991, 2015
Numerical Simulation of High-Temperature Oxidation of Lubricants Using the Network Method
A network model for simulating the high-temperature oxidation of lubricants, a physical process governed by a set of coupled differential equations, is presented. The problem, which is numerically solved by the network method, provides all the species concentrations involved in the oxidation process for different values of temperature, the basic parameter influencing the solution. The proposed model is general, since no assumptions are considered concerning the concentrations of liquid-phase oxidation products, and it is implemented with very few programming rules. The results are successfully compared with those provided by other methods and with experimental data of different lubricants. The design of the model, which is run on standard electrical circuit simulation software, is explained in detail. Applications to different industrial lubricants are discussed. Analyzing lubricants by means of the network method is useful for evaluating them from the point of view of temperature. Likewise, the study displays that the deposits have an asymptotic tendency, especially in the case of some lubricants.
Keywords:Lubricant degradation;Mathematical modelling;Network simulation method;Numerical simulation;Oxidation;Thermal decomposition