Early-warning wireless telemeter for harsh-environment bearings.

摘要

An early-warning wireless and high-temperature telemeter that continuously monitors the temperature of a bearing during operation has been designed and developed as a part of this study. The telemeter detects imminent temperature-induced failure of the bearing nearly five minutes before conventional thermocouple sensors respond to conditional changes, leaving ample time for appropriate actions to avoid complete failure. The telemeter includes a temperature-sensitive capacitor that operates up to 220°C. In addition, the telemeter's natural frequency changes with capacitance, which in turn is dependant on temperature. Information transmission between the bearing and a monitoring station is accomplished with a matched interrogator. In-situ operation was accomplished for a harsh environment up to 40,000RPM with a transient response of up to 0.17°C/s compared to 0.06°C/s of a standard thermocouple.