Thermal conductivity of trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO) based bio-lubricant using molecular dynamic simulation

With a biodegradation rate exceeding 90%, TMPTO, a polyol ester, is used as a base oil for bio-lubricant. Its excellent physicochemical properties, made TMPTO based bio-lubricants applied as metalworking fluids such as in hydraulics, chains and machines. In this study, TMPTO is derived from chemical reactions between Trimethylolpropane (TMP) and the methyl ester which synthesized from plant oils such as palm and Jatropha curcas. With hBN nanoparticles addition, it is expected improving its heat transfer capability. This study is predicting the thermal conductivity of TMPTO with various hBN nanoparticles concentration using the molecular dynamics simulation method. The thermal conductivity value is computed using Green-Kubo formalism, and it is applied to compute the heat flux vector based on a contribution from atoms in the specified group. Based on simulations, we get the best thermal conductivity value around 0.255 - 0.375 W/mK, which performed by TPMTO with a 0.4% hBN addition.