SBIR Phase I: Development of Integrated Oil Debris Sensors for Machinery Fault Detection and Conditioning Monitoring

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop an innovative integrated wear debris sensor for condition health monitoring of rotating and reciprocating machinery via detecting metallic and nonmetallic wear debris in the machinery?s lubrication oil. Today?s online debris sensors can provide only limited information on the progression of machine wear or do not have in-situ online capability. This Phase I project will focus on building a laboratory prototype to demonstrate the proof-of-concept high-throughput detection, differentiation, characterization, and counting of nonmetallic, and metallic (ferrous and non-ferrous) debris ranging from 20ìm to 150ìm (which are indicative of machines? wear status) in real time. The integrated sensor will consist of 1) an ultrasonic sensing unit with a unique flow recess design that accurately detects all metallic and non-metallic debris, and 2) an inductive Coulter counting sensing unit that detects and differentiates ferrous and non-ferrous metallic debris. It is anticipated this sensor is able to accurately measure wear debris size and concentration of each type, and thus provide information for conditioning based maintenance and life prognosis of a variety of high speed rotary machinery including rotorcraft transmissions and turboshaft engines.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is an innovative high throughput oil debris sensing technology that provide advance warning of sudden catastrophic failure, facilitate better maintenance scheduling, and significantly reduce the cost of machine operation. The high throughput and high sensitivity of the sensor, along with its low cost and compact size, makes it an ideal instrument for real-time condition monitoring and life prognosis for a variety of machinery such as bearings, gearboxes, and turbomachinery, and thereby have broader impacts on and commercial potentials for the transportation, manufacturing and military industries. It is a powerful complement to existing offline oil wear debris analysis. The proposed research will form the scientific foundation for the development of advanced sensors systems for micro/nanoscale particle sensing. In particular, studies of particle sensing in a nonconductive, high viscous environment are poised to have a transformative impact on monitoring new soft materials processing involving micro/nano particles, and the development of sensors for detecting metallic and dielectric particle contamination in nonconductive materials and environments.