Torque loss and wear of FZG gears lubricated with wind turbine gear oils using an ionic liquid as additive

This work presents a study of the tribological behavior of a mineral fully-formulated wind turbine gear oil additised with [BMP][NTf2] ionic liquid. The target application is the wind turbine gearboxes, thus the fully formulated oil with and without ionic liquid additive was tested in a rolling bearings test rig to measure the thrust rolling bearing torque loss and was also tested in a FZG gear test rig to measure the gears torque loss at operating conditions similar to the observed in a wind turbine gearbox. The results show that a wind turbine gear oil additised with ionic liquid can reduce the torque loss and improve the gearbox efficiency while producing less wear particles as observed in the oil analysis. •Tribological behavior of a mineral wind turbine gear oil additised with [BMP][NTf2] ionic liquid.•Torque loss of rolling bearings was measured in a dedicated test rig.•Torque loss and wear tests were performed with type C14 FZG gears.•The addition of the ionic liquid decrease torque loss, power loss and wear, and increase efficiency.