Refractive indices of metal working fluid emulsion components

Metal working fluids (MWF) used in machining processes are typically formulated as oil-in-water emulsions, consisting of an aqueous base with an emulsified oleous phase and additives. These emulsions degenerate over their lifetime leading to changed physical attributes, for instance increased droplet size or concentration. This temporal change may be monitored via optical measurement techniques, which require knowledge of the refractive index of the aqueous and oleous phases for the droplet size measurement. The optical dispersion of the aqueous phase is widely documented in the literature; however, there are no proper references available for the oleous phase for MWF. Thus, in this study the dependence of refractive indices on the wavelength of light of oils that are typically used for the formulation of MWF was determined. The measurements were performed using an Abbe refractometer at room temperature (22 ± 2 °C) in the visible light range at wavelengths between 430 and 680 nm. The results were fitted to the Cauchy dispersion equation describing the optical dispersion of the systems. (paper)