Abstract
There has been a growing concern for the use of mineral oil based lubricants because of the worldwide interest in environmental issues. This has prompted the use of vegetable oils as more environmentally acceptable base fluids. In view of this, four-ball wear test was carried out to investigate the tribological behavior of selected vegetable oils blended with ZDDP, TCP and DBP under high speed and temperate conditions. Of the additive evaluated, the new additive, DBP has provided antiwear performance superior to the two other additives more commonly used. This superior performance by DBP is probably caused by different wear mechanism. This wear mechanism has been evidenced by the surface analysis of worn balls conducted using optical microscope and EDAX.