Comparative Study of Single and Composite Nanolubricants in Automotive Air-Conditioning (AAC) System Performance

Various studies by leading experts have shown the effectiveness of nanolubricant in improving the performance of the automotive air conditioning (AAC) system. Along with the advancement of technology, composite nanolubricant have been introduced and have been proven to have better properties than normal nanolubricant. The Al₂O₃-SiO₂/PAG composite nanolubricant have better stability, better heat transfer, and improve tribology characteristic compare to its individual single nanoparticles nanolubricant. However, until now no experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of composite nanolubricant in the AAC system. An experimental study is then taken by testing the Al₂O₃-SiO₂/PAG in AAC system. The results of this experiment have been compared with results of the previous study that uses Al₂O₃/PAG and SiO₂/PAG in AAC system. It is found that the composite nanolubricant have a high enhancement in the COP and does reduce the compressor work of the AAC system. The comparison between Al₂O₃-SiO₂/PAG, Al₂O₃/PAG and SiO₂/PAG nanolubricant demonstrates that Al₂O₃-SiO₂/PAG, has better performance in term of compressor work reduction and COP enhancement at an average of 28.7 % and 31.64 %, respectively. At last, it was recommended to use the Al₂O₃-SiO₂/PAG nanolubricant for application in AAC system. (paper)