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Oil Aeration

To: List Land Speed <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Subject: Oil Aeration
From: Bryan Savage <basavage@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 10:52:37 -0700
List,

One reason for a dry sump is removing the air from the oil. I don't know
( Dave ??) how much heat can be generated by air in engine oil but aeration
is a major cause of heat failure in hydraulic systems.

Bryan  (The information junkie)

The following is from:
Controlling Oil Aeration and Foam
Marianne Duncanson, Exxon Company USA

Dissolved air is not readily drawn out of solution. It becomes a problem 
when temperatures rise rapidly or pressures drop. Petroleum oils contain 
as much as 12 percent dissolved air. When a system starts up or when it 
overheats, this air changes from a dissolved phase into small bubbles. 
If the bubbles are less than 1 mm in diameter, they remain suspended in 
the liquid phase of the oil, particularly in high viscosity oils, 
causing air entrainment, which is characterized as a small amount of air 
in the form of extremely small bubbles dispersed throughout the bulk of 
the oil. Air entrainment is treated differently than foam, and is most 
often a completely separate problem. Some of the potential effects of 
air entrainment include:

    *

      pump cavitation,

    *

      oil oxidation,

    *

      component wear due to reduced lubricant viscosity,

    *

      micro-dieseling due to the ignition of the bubble sheath at the
      high temperatures generated by compressed air bubbles,

Base Oils Effects

In a system where foam is generated mechanically, switching to synthetic 
oil may help.

    *

      Polyalphaolefin and hydrocracked oils, by virtue of their high
      surface tension, show relatively low foaming tendency compared to
      petroleum hydrocarbons.

    *

      Unadditized organic esters are essentially nonfoaming, but are
      highly susceptible to contamination or to effects from additives.

    *

      Phosphate esters show foam build-up at low temperatures, but
      above 122:F (50:C) they show very little foam tendency.


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