STTR Phase I: Multi-functional Oil Quality Sensor

这项小型企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段研究项目旨在为汽车和柴油发动机市场开发和表征一种新型多功能油质传感器。该研究项目的目标是开发一种创新的、具有成本效益的多功能油质传感器，可以检测各种发动机机油的降解机制。目前用于检测油质的传感器是高度专业化的，通常只适用于特定类型的油或特定类型的降解机制（例如金属碎片或水污染），市场上没有一种具有成本效益的单一传感器，可以识别由于各种机制导致的可能的油质降解。这给发动机制造商带来了一个问题，因为使用了各种各样的传感器，每种传感器只能检测一种类型的问题，这使得采用油质传感器的成本过高。新的传感器将允许在线监测，以准确地检测各种模式的退化的发动机油，并将设计与不同制造商提供的油工作。车载传感器可以持续监测发动机油的质量，并在需要换油时提醒操作人员/驾驶员，这对经济效益有显著影响。如果在需要时不更换机油，结果可能会增加磨损甚至导致灾难性的发动机故障。另一方面，如果更改过于频繁，则会增加成本。一个可靠的、经济的机载油况传感器将有利于发动机制造商，因为他们可以通过减少客户的生命周期成本来获得竞争优势，并且显然有利于最终用户，因为他们的操作和维护成本降低了。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project is designed to develop and characterize a novel, multi-functional oil quality sensor for the automobile and diesel engine markets. The objective of the proposed research project is to develop an innovative, cost effective multi-functional oil quality sensor that can detect a variety of degradation mechanisms for engine oil. Current sensors for detection oil quality are highly specialized and usually work only with a specific type of oil or a specific type of degradation mechanism (e.g. metal fragments or water contamination), and no single, cost-effective sensor that will work to identify possible oil quality degradation due to a variety of mechanisms is available in the market. This poses a problem for engine manufacturers as the utilization of a variety of sensors, each of which can detect only one type of problem makes the adoption of oil-quality sensors cost-prohibitive. The new sensors will allow on-line monitoring to accurately detect various modes of degradation of engine oil, and will be designed to work with oil provided by different manufacturers.On-board sensors, that can continuously monitor the quality of engine oil and alert the operator/driver when an oil change is required, can have a significant beneficial economic impact. If engine oil is not changed when needed, the result may be increased wear or even catastrophic engine failure. On the other hand, if the changes are too frequent, the result is added cost. A reliable, cost-effective on-board oil condition sensor will be beneficial to the engine manufacturers as they can gain a competitive edge by reducing lifetime cost to their customers, and is clearly beneficial to the end users as their operation and maintenance costs are reduced.