Claims
- 1. A method of monitoring dielectric properties of a fluid, comprising the steps of:
providing a contact potential difference sensor; flowing a fluid past the sensor to generate a contact potential; and characterizing the contact potential as a measure of dielectric properties of the fluid.
- 2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the fluid comprises an oil.
- 3. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the characterizing step includes measuring the contact potential of a standard fluid and comparing with the contact potential of a test fluid.
- 4. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein the step of measuring the contact potential of a standard fluid includes establishing signatures associated with a particular dielectric state of the fluid.
- 5. The method as defined in claim 4 wherein the dielectric state is selected from the group consisting of a molecular change relative to the standard fluid and presence of a contaminating material.
- 6. The method as defined in claim 5 wherein the molecular change is selected from the group consisting of thermally induced chemical degeneration and chemical reaction with a contaminant.
- 7. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the fluid is selected from the group consisting of condensed matter and gaseous matter.
- 8. The method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of outputting an alarm indication upon detecting dielectric properties outside an acceptable range.
- 9. The method as defined in claim 8 further including a display for use by an operator to view the alarm indication.
- 10. A system for monitoring operational dielectric condition of a fluid, comprising:
a contact potential sensor; a fluid disposed in a closed loop; and an output device to indicate the operational condition of the fluid.
- 11. The system as defined in claim 10 wherein the fluid comprises a hydrocarbon fluid.
- 12. The system as defined in claim 11 wherein the hydrocarbon fluid comprises an oil.
- 13. The system as defined in claim 10 wherein the output device comprises a machine maintenance indicator component.
- 14. The system as defined in claim 10 further including a computer for analyzing the operational condition of the fluid.
- 15. The system as defined in claim 10 wherein the computer includes data characteristic of a plurality of particular degraded operational conditions of the fluid.
- 16. The system as defined in claim 15 wherein the data characteristic of particular degraded operational condition is selected from the group consisting of chemically changed fluid relative to a starting virgin fluid, fluid chemically reacted with an environmental material and contaminating extrinsic material.
- 17. The system as defined in claim 10 further including an oil pan of an engine having a drain plug wherein the sensor is disposed near the drain plug.
- 18. The system as defined in claim 10 further including a closed loop which contains the fluid, the closed loop part of an industrial unit.
- 19. The system as defined in claim 18 wherein the industrial unit is selected from the group consisting of a chemical plant, an environmental apparatus, an internal combustion engine and a turbine.
- 20. The system as defined in claim 10 further including data storage containing data sets characteristic of desired chemical states of a fluid, whereby data from a fluid under test can be compared with the desired chemical state data.
Government Interests
[0001] This invention was made in part with U.S. Government support under a grant from the Office of Naval Research Contract No. N000140010374. The U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60279596 |
Mar 2001 |
US |