Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N33/00—Investigating or analysing materials by specific methods not covered by groups G01N1/00 - G01N31/00
  • G01N33/26—Oils; Viscous liquids; Paints; Inks
  • G01N33/28—Oils, i.e. hydrocarbon liquids
  • G01N33/2888—Lubricating oil characteristics, e.g. deterioration

Definitions

• FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of an apparatus, wherein the fluid temperature is monitored but not controlled.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an apparatus 1 that can be used to collect appropriate data required for the monitoring and detecting of on-line the characterization of a fluid.
• Apparatus 1 includes three pairs of essentially parallel electrodes 3 immersed in highly resistive fluid 5, in conduit 7. The pairs of electrodes 3 are fixedly held in and electrically isolated from conduit 7, by mounts 9.
• Apparatus 1 also includes three signal generators 11a, lib, lie that supply sinusoidal signals of fixed amplitude, frequency and offset voltage through electrical conduits 13, to an associated pair of electrodes 3.
• a signals offset voltage is defined as the time averaged voltage of the signal.
• apparatus 43 of FIG. 2 can be mounted in locations other than conduit 7 as long as fluid 5 flows between electrode pairs 3 in a manner that allows the fluid between the electrode pairs to be at the temperature measured by thermocouple 31 and representative of the current quality/condition of the fluid in the equipment being monitored.
• a fewer number of signal generators 11a, lib, lie and pairs of electrodes 3 can be used if a signal genera- tor can be controlled to apply multiple desired frequencies and/or off set- voltages.
• the electrodes 3 need not be flat plates with only one surface of each electrode op- posed to the other electrode.
• An apparatus embodiment can have electrodes geometries with greater than one surface of each electrode opposed to the other electrode.
• Apparatus 43 can be individual components, as shown in FIG. 2, or can be integrated components, which, for example, reduce cost, size and/or power requirements of the apparatus.
• a fluid's real-impedance response 65, 67 rises relatively quickly, as a function of equipment use, to a maximum value (M M ) 69.
• the value of the peak 69 is not as critical to the useful life of the fluid as is the percent decrease from this peak value during fluid life.
• Curves 65 and 67 are scaled to have the same peak value 69.
• the real-impedance of both the premium and standard quality fluids decrease as a function of time, with the standard fluid decreasing more rapidly.
• the method in block 117 determines if the medium-frequency response S M is greater than a stored maximum medium-frequency response MM- If the answer is "yes”, which means that the medium-frequency response has not reached its maximum value, than MM is replaced by S M in block 119 and no further analysis of the medium-frequency response is done with the method advancing to block 121 where variable "M" is set equal to zero to indicate that the fluid condition determined by the fluid's medium- frequency response is acceptable. If the block 117 determination is "no", i.e.
• FIG. 9 uses low-, medium- and high frequency responses to determine fluid quality and conditions
• a similar embodiment could be shown where the high-frequency response S H in not used in the determination for fluids in applications where the change in the fluid's high-frequency response is substantially less significant than the fluid's medium- and low-frequency response changes.
• the dielectric/impedance analyzer sequentially applied about 3 V peak-to-peak electrical signals to the electrodes immersed in the oil at about 1 Hz with an about 3 V offset such that the signal oscillated from about +1.5 V to about +4.5 V relative to ground, and at about 100 Hz and about 1 MHz with about zero volt offset set such that the signals oscillate from about -1.5 to about +1.5 V relative to ground.
• the dielectric/impedance analyzer determined the test oil's imaginary impedance (Zj m ) at about 1 Hz, the test oil's real impedance (Z rea i) at about 100 Hz and the test oil's dielectric ( ⁇ ) at about 1 MHz.

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• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Medicinal Chemistry (AREA)
• Biochemistry (AREA)
• General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Food Science & Technology (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
• Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Immunology (AREA)
• Pathology (AREA)
• Investigating Or Analyzing Materials By The Use Of Electric Means (AREA)
• Testing And Monitoring For Control Systems (AREA)

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• 2002
  • 2002-10-16 US US10/271,885 patent/US6861851B2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 2003
  • 2003-10-14 DE DE60323656T patent/DE60323656D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-10-14 AU AU2003284079A patent/AU2003284079B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2003-10-14 WO PCT/US2003/032235 patent/WO2004036210A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2003-10-14 BR BR0315423-8A patent/BR0315423A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2003-10-14 EP EP03776310A patent/EP1552292B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
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  • 2003-10-14 CA CA002502283A patent/CA2502283A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-10-14 KR KR1020057006659A patent/KR101072208B1/ko not_active Expired - Fee Related
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