IN-SITU OIL ANALYZER AND METHODS USING SAME, PARTICULARLY FOR CONTINUOUS ON-BOARD ANALYSIS OF DIESEL ENGINE LUBRICATION SYSTEMS

摘要

A method and apparatus for detecting the degree of deterioration of alubricating oil for an operating machine includes a grid-like capacitivesensor (20) that uses the lubricating oil as a dielectric medium. A magneticfield is imposed upon the oil to attract ferromagnetic wear particles into thevicinity of the sensor. Preferably, the magnetic field is generated by atleast two independently controlled electromagnet windings (26, 28) alignedsuch that the magnetic field produced by each winding acts upon the wearparticles. A plurality of capacitance measurements are taken at periodicintervals at each of several magnet operational states for respectiveclassification and analysis. All windings may be simultaneously de-energizedfor release of captured particles back in to an oil circulation stream and toclean the capacitative sensor grid of accumulated particulates.