Effect of Alcohol Additives on the Plate-Out Oil Film in Cold Rolling and its Molecular Dynamics Simulations

In order to meet the demands of modern rolling technology, improve productivity, and control oil consumption, flexible lubrication control has been more and more important. In this study, a new method to control the plate-out oil film formation has been proposed and clarified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Four alcohol additives are added, namely, propanetriol, 1,2-propanediol, ethylene glycol, and n-propanol; the oil-in-water emulsions display different plate-out behavior with the amount of plate-out film following the order of propanetriol1,2-propanediolethylene glycoln-propanol. The adsorption mechanism, the MD simulation of the flat membrane layer, the mean square displacement (MSD), and the cohesive energy are used to elucidate the relevant mechanism of the additive on the precipitation characteristic. The results show that the capacity of aggregation of oil droplets on the formed film takes the dominant role in the plate-out film formation with different alcohol additives, which is helpful in guiding flexible controllability of plate-out behavior as well as lubrication conditions.