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Abstract: Development of environmental friendly hydraulic fluid has a major influence on ecologically benign environment. This future type of oil should be non-toxic, biodegradable and ecological benign. Subsequently, it becomes crucial to recognize the sustainability of such oil in maintaining a high system performance which resulting in tremendous contribution towards machinery technology. Furthermore, the development of methods to evaluate the actual performance of hydraulic fluid has been of great interest. In this project a hydraulic test rig was built to conduct endurance test where it can be operated continuously with several safety features. The rig was used to test the oil and other stringent parameters, running for nearly 1000hours. Major factors in the decrease of mechanical efficiency are thermal heat, friction, aging behaviour and contamination of the plant oil. Explained in this paper are the features of the hydraulic system built to evaluate the performance of plant oils. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental issues are among the main concern nowadays. Interest in developing environmental products arises concurrently with the industrial development. The use of plant oil as hydraulic fluid would help to minimize hazardous pollution caused by accidental spillage, lower disposal costs of the used fluid and meet the environmental regulations. This research was conducted to investigate the rheology elements and potential of plant oil in marine application. The properties and characteristics of plant oil were done via rheological study by focusing on the viscosity effect as a function of temperature and shear rate. The rheological models indicate that this plant oil belong to pseudo-plastic category. Further analysis was done to fit the experimental data with various models and the findings show that the Cross and Carreau models fit well with the experimental data. The plant oil was used in 1000 hour operation in a hydraulic system, built in the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. The overall results suggest the potential substitution of plant oil as an energy transport media in marine application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]