PEER REVIEW
20
th
Australian International Aerospace Congress, 27-28 February 2023, Melbourne
20th Australian International Aerospace Congress
ISBN number: 978-1-925627-66-4
Normal Paper
The Application of Inductive Wear Debris Sensors to
Diesel Engines
J. G. Harris
Platforms Division, Prognostics and Health Monitoring, Defence Science and Technology Group, 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermans Bend,
Victoria 3207, Australia
Abstract
This paper outlines the application of inductive wear debris sensors to large diesel engines
during engine run-in following refurbishment. The sensors and their supporting electronics
were initially used, as supplied, to observe the run-in process on refurbished engines. They
were then modified with programmable LabVIEW hardware to create the DSTG Wear Debris
Monitoring System. The features of this system include the recording and real time graphical
display of wear debris metrics such as total debris particles counted, total mass recorded,
debris generation rates, or mass and count by pre-set size bins. Statistical metrics were then
monitored by pre-set alarms. The capacity to monitor the engine state (pre-lube, run, post-
lube), oil pressure, oil flow and oil viscosity were added to extend the system flexibility and
utility. Trials confirmed the sensor’s ability to record and display, in real time, the generation
of ferromagnetic wear debris particles down to the specified minimum size of 160 µm when
using a 3/4” (19 mm) bore inductive wear debris sensor. The monitoring system also
identified a correlation between the cleanliness of the engine build process, the amount of
ferrous debris detected, and the run time taken to achieve the reduced debris generation rate
associated with a successful engine run-in.
Keywords: wear debris, diesel engines, inductive debris sensor
Introduction
All internal combustion engines generate metallic wear debris during operation. Nearly all
wear debris is carried away in either the exhaust gas stream or lubrication oil flow. As the
engine progresses through its life, the rate and size of wear debris can indicate excessive
mechanical wear and/or incipient failure [1, 2]. The idealized progression to failure due to
escalating wear proposed by Tauber [1] is indicated by an increasing wear debris production
rate and corresponding increase in the mean particle size. More recent work by Becker et al.
[2] showed that progression to failure can be measured solely by monitoring the number of
wear particles generated. Monitoring oil-borne wear debris in real time is proposed as an
effective method of diesel engine condition monitoring to facilitate the early intervention and
prognosis of engine faults.
For most engines, traditional methods of examination rely on the extraction of wear debris
from the oil filter, and/or by off-site laboratory analysis of routine oil samples. The test results
rely heavily on the sampling technique used, and the analysis type employed. Spectrometric
