Use of Virtual Tests in Establishing BOI/VGRA

The Engine Oil Industry Base Oil Interchange (BOI) and Viscosity Grade Read Across (VGRA) guidelines developed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) provide a means to significantly reduce the time to market for current technology oils. The guidelines also allow conversion of a fraction of the millions of dollars spent each year on engine testing in pursuit of API engine oil licensing into research testing and the development of fundamental knowledge. In the past, guidelines have been developed based upon a general assessment of minimal engine test data. Recently, however, regression models have been used to assess Base Oil and Viscosity Grade effects.

The use of statistical regression models and Virtual Tests in determining effects to establish BOI and VGRA has several advantages. These advantages, demonstrated through an example and a case study, include volume of data and breadth of data. The example is a calculation of statistical power using an actual covariate data set, while the case study is a summary of a recent instance where models have been used in API BOI discussions.