Investigations on the Relationship between Wear Debris Residence Time in Lubrication Systems and Online Oil Sampling Interval

Abstract

Lubrication systems have significant effects on the residence time of wear debris (RTWD), which limits the monitoring efficiency of the online debris sensor. The focus of this work is to investigate the relationship between RTWD in lubrication systems and online oil sampling interval. Firstly, a vector representation for the attenuation function of wear debris (AFWD) is introduced in order to depict the removal of wear debris with different sizes. Based on this, a mathematical model is developed to calculate the RTWD. A setting criterion for the online oil sampling interval is also proposed. Thereafter, RTWD in different size ranges was investigated experimentally, in which the concentration of wear debris larger than the micrometer rating of the filter decays to 10% of the initial concentration within 5 min. The results were consistent with the proposed model results. Moreover, we find that the online oil sampling interval must be determined by the residence time of large wear debris caused by abnormal wear. Otherwise, the online distortion monitoring results can result in false conclusions.

Keywords:

• Wear debris
• residence time
• lubrication system
• online oil sampling interval

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 51675408).