Size distribution analysis of wear debris generated in HEMM engine oil for reliability assessment: A statistical approach

Abstract

Wear debris size distribution in lubricated system closely related to lubricant condition and wear process. In this work, a model has been developed to predict the wear severity with operation time. The used oil samples were collected from Heavy Earth Moving Machines (HEMM) (Model No: BEML BH50M – dumper) employed in open cast mining (Dhanbad, India). Ferrography was used for the isolation as well as capturing image of wear debris from the collected samples. The captured images of wear debris were then processed for the generation of particle distribution using ImageJ software. It has been observed that most of the wear particles are found in 1–25 µm size range. The particle distribution over time has been studied using Weibull distribution model. Based on the statistical modelling of wear particles distribution with time of operation, results show that the percentage of larger particle (>25 µm) increase with time.