Characterization of Vegetable Oil-Based Nanocutting Fluids

The quality of a product in manufacturing is appraised by dimensional accuracy and surface finish. Among many factors that influence these two aspects cutting fluids stimulate the quality of machined surfaces by improving machining performance. Before they are applied to machining, it is essential to assess the viability of the cutting fluids. This is done by evaluating their basic properties. This paper is an attempt to evaluate thermophysical properties of vegetable oil-based nanocutting fluids in view of ecofriendly machining with a focus on enhanced machining performance. In view of this aspect, carbon nanotubes (CnT) and nanoboric acid (nBA) nanoparticles with variation in percentage of nanoparticle inclusions (NPI) are dispersed in coconut oil. The nanocutting fluids thus formulated are tested for density, dynamic viscosity, and thermal conductivity. Specific heat and heat transfer coefficient are evaluated using empirical relations. It is observed that density, thermal conductivity, and dynamic viscosity increased with increase in NPI for CnT- and nBA-dispersed nanocutting fluids. Viscosity is found to decreasze with increase in temperature for both the types of nanocutting fluids. Specific heat increased slightly with increase in NPI from 0 % to 1.25 % for CnT-dispersed fluids, whereas a slight decrease was observed for nBA-dispersed fluids. Heat transfer coefficient has increased with increase in NPI for CnT-based fluids. Fluids dispersed with nBA exhibited an increase followed by a decrease in heat transfer coefficient with increase in NPI. On the whole, it is discerned that for CnT-dispersed coconut oil-based cutting fluids, basic properties are much better than those of their nBA counterparts.