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Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 771 – 776

TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on sustainable, modern and safe transport

The influence of oil pressure in the engine lubrication system on

friction losses
Ewa Rosteka*, Maciej Babiakb, Emil Wróblewskib
a
Motor Transport Institute, Centre for Material Testing, Warsaw 03-301, Poland
b
Poznan University of Technology Institute of Combustion Engines and Transport,Poznań, 60-965, Poland

Abstract

The purpose of the internal combustion engine lubrication system is to provide optimal conditions for the oil film formation in all
friction couples, such as a piston-cylinder, piston rings-cylinder, main bearings, etc. The oil film is designed to minimize the wear
of the elements while ensuring the smallest possible friction losses. Lack of continuity of the oil film, and thus boundary or mixed
friction conditions, obviously have a negative effect on the friction losses. However, the continuous oil film, depending on the
conditions of its formation, may be characterized by different values of friction losses. One of the factors that may affect the
conditions of formation of the oil film is the value of oil pressure in the lubrication system. In the paper the results of researches
on friction losses carried out on an engine test bench are presented. The study consisted of measuring the driving torque of the
internal combustion engine by an electric machine which is the source of power for the internal combustion engine. The oil
temperature, the oil pressure, which was generated by independent from the engine oil pump, and the rotational speed of the
crankshaft were the variables during test stand measurement. The article analyzes the results and conclusions are drawn.
© 2017
© 2017Published
The Authors. Published
by Elsevier by Elsevier
Ltd. This is an openLtd.
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review
sustainable,under responsibility
modern of the scientific committee of TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on sustainable,
and safe transport.
modern and safe transport
Keywords: Combustion engine; friction losses; engine mechanical losses; oil pressure; oil film

1. Introduction

The development of internal combustion engines have been focused in the last three decades on reducing the
negative impact on natural environment. To a large extent it is associated with the reduction in toxic exhaust emissions

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +48-22-438-5325; fax: +48-22-438-5401.

E-mail address: ewa.rostek@its.waw.pl

1877-7058 © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of TRANSCOM 2017: International scientific conference on sustainable, modern and safe transport
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.06.133
772 Ewa Rostek et al. / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 771 – 776

into the atmosphere, but also with the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, which although is not a toxic gas, but is
considered as a harmful because it intensifies the occurrence of the greenhouse effect. The reduction of carbon dioxide
emissions can only be achieved by reducing the consumption of hydrocarbon fuels. The fuel consumption basically
depends on power demand and engine total efficiency. One component of engine total efficiency is the mechanical
efficiency, which includes the friction losses and all mechanical losses of auxiliary drives, for example oil pump,
alternator, AC compressor, and so on [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. To improve the mechanical efficiency of combustion engine
the friction and mechanical losses should be reduced. As shown in figure 1, the oil pump losses are the highest of all
auxiliary drives and only friction losses of crank mechanism are more significant. This situation is even worse when
the temperature of oil is low, because the viscosity of increases in an exponential manner and oil pump power demand
rises as well.

Fig. 1. Components of friction mean effective pressure for four cylinder spark ignition engine [4]

Developing the engine construction design engineers have focused during last decade on oil pump losses. The
external gear oil pump is equipped with regulator valve which regulates only the maximum oil pressure in the system.
When the engine speed increases the delivery rate of a pump also increases. Because the oil consumers in the engine
cannot process the excess oil being delivered, so the oil pressure in the system increases and when the oil pressure
exceeds a nominal value the pressure limiting take place inside the pump. A mechanical valve opened for this purpose.
However, since the pump is still operating at its maximum delivery rate, a portion of the input energy is converted to
heat, which means this part of energy is lost. This simple oil pressure regulation does not meet the engine requirements,
especially for the range of low and medium engine speed and engine load. This situation is presented in figure 2. The
red line represents the required engine oil pressure, while the yellow and the blue lines represent the actual oil pressure
delivered by oil pump of two different engines. It is clear that the oil pressure is too high for the whole engine speed
operating range. This situation could not be avoided for simple regulation with the spring control valve. Different
methods of regulation were developed and their goal was to match the required oil pressure with the pressure delivered
by the pump by means of oil pump delivery rate regulation instead of pressure release regulation. The regulated oil
pressure is represented by green line in figure 2. This allowed to reduce the oil pump drive power and decrease the
engine fuel consumption. Example of regulated vane pump from 3.0 TDI engine is presented in figure 3.
The lower oil pump delivery rate means that less oil volume gets to all of the friction pairs of the engine, especially
to the journal bearings of the crankshaft and camshaft. Authors decided to investigate how will engine kinematic pairs
operate for low oil supply in means of friction losses. It would be the most unfavorable situation if the friction losses
are higher, which means that the friction change its character from fluid to mixed.
 Ewa Rostek et al. / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 771 – 776 773

Fig. 2. Comparison of pressure characteristics [8]

Fig. 3. Flow rate controlled vane oil pump sketch (low and high delivery rate stage) [7]

2. The test stand

The test stand consists of the modified internal combustion engine which is driven by electric motor. The
combustion engine is a FIAT 176.A046 type. It is a two cylinder in-line water cooled spark ignition engine. The drive
is transmitted by a shaft, which is equipped with the HMB T5 tensometr torque meter, enabling accurate measurement
of the torque with high sample rate. The engine camshaft is immobilized, leaving the intake and exhaust valves in a
closed position. Furthermore the coolant pump and the oil pump, which in a real engine are driven from the crankshaft,
are disengaged and replaced with an external pumps, both driven by electric motors. This allowed to exclude the valve
train, oil pump and coolant pump power from the measured torque. The scheme and view of the test is show in figure
4 and 5.
The aim of the cooling system modification was to ensure as low as possible deviation of oil temperature, regardless
of the setpoint temperature and operating conditions. This was achieved by applying an external coolant pump with
adjustable flow rate, wherein the flow rate is completely independent of the engine speed. Furthermore, the oil cooler
oil-air heat exchanger was replaced with an oil-coolant heat exchanger. Characteristics of the external electrically
driven oil pump is independent of the engine speed and is regulated by inverter, so the oil pressure can be adjusted in
the range of 1 to 6 bar (higher pressure is not permitted for this engine type). The oil pressure gauge was installed
774 Ewa Rostek et al. / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 771 – 776

direct in the lubrication system of the engine to ensure the control of actual oil pressure. Additional system provides
automatic engine emergency stop if the oil pressure drops below approx. 0.5 bar.
In the external coolant circulation a coolant-air heat exchanger is installed. An electric fan with fully variable speed
is used and an electric heater with adjustable heat power from 0 to 4 kW and independent coolant and oil pumps allow
to obtain the desired temperature before starting the engine.

Fig. 4. The research stand scheme: 1- the tested engine, 2- an electric machine, 3- a torque-meter, 4- acquisition of measurements, 5- engine
external temperature stabilization, 6- an external power unit supplying the engine lubrication system

Fig. 5. The view of the test bed

3. The test results

The experiment was carried on for combination of four engine speeds (1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 rpm) and four oil
pressure values (2, 3, 4, 5 bar). For all measurements the oil temperature was constant 90 ºC. The maximum engine
speed during the experiment seems to be low, but it was deliberately chosen, because low engine speeds favor the
occurrence of mixed friction. For the same reason high oil temperature was selected  high oil temperature causes low
oil viscosity and as a consequence unfavorable conditions (in combination with low engine speed) for generating the
oil film and fluid friction. This range also seems to be the most interesting in aspect of the New European Driving
Cycle test, WLTP cycle test and average car engine operating conditions. The obtained results are presented in figures
6 and 7.
 Ewa Rostek et al. / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 771 – 776 775

Torque [Nm]
4

3.5

3
1000 1500
2.5 2000 2500

2
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Oil pressure [bar]

Fig. 6. The torque as a function of oil pressure for different engine speeds
Torque [Nm]

3.5
2
3

3 4
5

2.5
1000 1500 2000 2500
Engine speed [rpm]

Fig. 7. The torque as a function of engine speed for different oil pressures

4. The analysis and final conclusions

The results indicate that the friction losses of the combustion engine crank mechanism do not directly depend on
the oil pressure. For set engine speed the driving torque was almost constant for all oil pressures and the differences
were in the range of measurement error. It is a clear evidence that for the test conditions in all measuring points friction
was a fluid friction. This means that was no danger of additional wear in kinematic pairs elements due to the low oil
pressure in the engine lubrication system and the direction of reduced oil pressure for low engine speed and low engine
load seems to be correct.
It should be noticed that there was no combustion process in the test bed engine, so the load of crank mechanism
was low and it cannot be clearly concluded that oil pressure should be as low as possible in the engine, in which
combustion process occurs and as a consequence engine produce power. Nowadays, to achieve high power output in
776 Ewa Rostek et al. / Procedia Engineering 192 (2017) 771 – 776

low end of the engine speed and therefore to improve fuel consumption, engines must produce high torque at low
engine speeds. This means that the load of the crank mechanism is very high and the future investigation should
concentrate on the influence of high engine load on the friction losses in low oil pressure conditions. It should be kept
in mind that lubrication is not the only task of the engine oil. The cooling function of engine oil becomes more and
more significant and cannot be omitted in further investigations.

References

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