Applications of Electrostatic Sensor for Wear Debris Detecting in the Lubricating Oil

Abstract

In this study, an advanced monitoring technology has been presented based on the electrostatic induction principle to monitor timely wear fault on-line. The paper begins with the principle of the electrostatic monitoring technology, then we focus on the electrostatic sensor, the most important component in the electrostatic monitoring system, establish a measurement model for an electrostatic sensor with the given structure parameters. Based on the measurement model, we use the finite element method to analyze the characteristics of an electrostatic sensor for wear debris detecting in lubricating oil. Lastly we build an experiment platform to validate the feasibility of the electrostatic monitoring method. The experiment results show, to some extent, that the electrostatic signal can reflect the relative density of wear debris, and the sensor proposed can satisfy the primary demand of wear debris on-line monitoring.