Development of hybrid particle analyzer for on-line condition monitoring of rubbing failure

2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 11555051
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B).
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 展開研究
• Research Field: 設計工学・機械要素・トライボロジー
• Research Institution: Fukui University
• Principal Investigator: HONDA Tomomi Fukui Univ., Mechanical Eng., Associate Professor, 工学部, 助教授 (80251982)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YOSHINAGA Shigeki H&F Corp., Engineer, 技術部・技師(研究職) ; UEDA Masahiro Fukui Univ., Eduacation and Regional Studies Faculty, Professor, 教育地域科学部, 教授 (30036420) ; IWAI Yoshiro Fukui Univ., Mechanical Eng., Professor, 工学部, 教授 (40115291)
• Project Period (FY): 1999 – 2000
• Keywords: Tribology / Lubrication Diagnostics / On-line Monitoring / Wear Particle / Lubricated Wear / Image Processing / Particle Distribution / Particle Shape

Research Abstract

(1) We developed an on-line image processing system using an optical microscope and a CCD camera in order to analyze the shape of wear particles in lubricanting oil. We investigated the effects of the shape of sensing zone on the accuracy of anlyzing wear particles.
(2) We completed a program software that can distinguish between wear particles and air bubbles in oil.
(3) We tried to make a hybrid particle analyzer using a particle counter and an image processing device.
(4) We applied our developed analyzer to the wear tests of bearing metal (WJ2) under various loads. It ws found that the variation of the size distribution and the shape parameters (i.e., aspect ratio and the ruggedness) of wear particles agreed with wear process.
(5) In order to make deta base, we accumulated the data of the shape of wear particles under various rubbing conditions.
From these results, our developed monitoring system is able to predict severe damage of lubricated wear at real-time.