i would like to find out a techniques to determine lubricant oil quality. It can be gained from viscosity value and percentage of water and particles. These Information gathered will be used by intelligence system to predict quality of tested lubricant oil.

So, does any one have any ideas of how to find out :-
1) the viscocity of lubricant oil
2) the % of water and particles in lubricant oil

Best regard,
Lee

 

Describing the process on line would not be feasible Lee. Many of the major heavy engine users, check oil, the way you are describing on a continuous basis - 24/7/365. Think of any large diesel company and I’m sure it is being done. Some have their own labs and some send out the oil in product bottles every day. Like you are suggesting – they graph the results of every engine. As time goes on – they can tell the engine condition by the results. It’s much cheaper to have the engine “graphed” than re-building it when not necessary. Problems show up pretty fast with oil checks.

You can find one of these labs in your area by going to any heavy engine user like Cat. The labs and instrumentation are quite sophisticated so it’s not something you can whip up around the shop or the remote labs wouldn’t exist.

Instruments are available to detect just emulsified oil with a cost of near $8000,00 for a basic unit. Even in professional racing – the days of rubbing the oil between your fingers is gone.

Thanks Bob Hogg www.almegcontrols.com

 

A few ideas on where to start:

Viscosity can be analysed with good accuracy using a rotational viscosimeter with temperature control. These are pretty simple instruments and work well for Newtonian fluids. There are several ISO standards that might apply here, probably something similar can be found in the US. The price of such an instrument is somewhere around 3-5kUSD. The Bohlin V88 might be an option. Check out: "www.bohlin.com":http://www.bohlin.com

Water in organic systems can be analysed be several methods. A Karl Fischer titration will probably be a good option. It is widely used in the petrochemical industry and well known and reliable. Equipment for such analyses come with a price tag of about 15kUSD. Check for example:

"http://www.product-search.co.uk/pin-pub.com/features/june2001/grscientific.shtml":http://www.product-search.co.uk/pin-pub.com/features/june2001/grscientific.shtml

 

"www.kavlico.com/ksensors/oil_sensor.html":http://www.kavlico.com/ksensors/oil_sensor.html

From their site:
"Kavlico's capacitance based sensor measures changes in the dielectric constant of the oil (typically engine lubricating oil). The dielectric constant gradually increases as oil breaks down and as antioxidant additives deplete and rapidly increases as coolant contaminates the oil. The sensor output increases as the dielectric constant increases."

Somewhere I heard that GM was supposed to be including these on new cars, but I'm not sure if that is correct.

Ed

Speaking for me, not for Starbucks. . .

 

The Cambridge Scientific shuttle type viscometer has its piston or shuttle move inside a small cavity like a dashpot. The shuttle is propelled back and forth by a pair of electromagnetic coils which also measure the time it takes for each cycle. The lube oil fills the cavity and hence there is no wearing surface. As viscosity changes the time taken per cycle changes.
They make a version specifically for car engines and are tied in with a European car manufacturer, i believe.
However, as a competitor company i will say no more about it, but suggest you contact them as it is available now. As i interpret their press release (and as i expect) it measures the dynamic viscosity at the oil operating temperature which may be sufficient for some engine monitoring purposes.
To make an oil quality judgement you need kinematic viscosity at 40degrees C. This is harder than you might think as the variation in viscosity with temperature is significant and most viscometers lack the accuracy or methodology to sort out viscosity change because of temperature from viscosity change because of quality change.
Now if you are talking about car engines I can't help you further yet but anything larger, medium and low speed diesels, high speed rotational machinery etc where lube oil quality can be critical then Solartrons vibrational viscometer can give you real time continuous determination of line dynamic and kinematic viscosity, line density, base density (density at 15degC) and the kinematic viscosity at 40degC. Originally used for refinery applications these are finding their way in to lubrication circuits and many other quality measurement applications e.g. measuring diesel fuel viscosity on engine production lines for the power factor correction measurements. And they are used in heavy fuel oil engines for fuel oil viscosity (not just for heater control which pretty well anyone can do, but also determining the viscosity at the reference temperature for the oil which is exactly similar to the lube oil requirement. Newer variants are more suitable for the smaller engines and equipment but unless you need a lot, or can wait a bit then maybe soon.... In the meanwhile there are lots of Universities and research groups working on the problem from the other end. These include devices such as the vibrating wire viscometer which may not be a practical device for a car engine yet but it does measure density and dynamic viscosity and with impressive accuracy so maybe a practical derivative will be available soon. It doesn't rally matter which technology. My best estimate is give it a year or two and you will have plenty of manufacturers to choose between.
In the meanwhile do give Cambridge a ring. I wouldn't visit their website since they don't feature it there, except to find their address and talk to them.

 

PS don't forget to visit the "http://www.eng-tips.com":http://www.eng-tips.com where they have a well supported forum on lubricants and "www.oilanalysis.com":http://www.oilanalysis.com , "www.practicingoilanalysis.com":http://www.practicingoilanalysis.com
Jon
[email protected]

 

Jeremy,
I guess I am a few years late but I am still keen to look at your question.Water contamination was not really answered. Here is something I helped a company write on Karl Fischer, sampling and moisture measurement

onlinehttp://www.matco.f2s.com/online%20karl%20fischer%20titrator.htm

I hope it is enlightening!