Evaluation of component condition through analysis of material interaction

• US 10,330,664 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2015
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Jean, Maurice, Meilleur, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lindsay, Jr., Walter L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fadul, Philipmarcus T
• Application Number:
  US14/743,015
• Publication Number:
  US 20160370341A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 7311455
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/2888 Lubricating oil characteristics, e.g. deterioration lubricating properties G01N33/30
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/28 with scanning beams H01J37/268, H01J37/292, H01J37/2955 take precedence

Abstract

There is described herein methods and systems relating to the use of the interaction of different materials to perform early detection of component failure. In particular, when the debris in a fluid sample comes from more than one source, a “level of interaction” is determined in order to monitor the degradation of the parts or components associated with the debris, as a function of the composition of the particles found in the fluid sample.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating a condition of at least one component from an environment having at least a first material and a second material different in chemical composition from the first material, the method comprising:

obtaining chemical composition data of a plurality of particles filtered from a fluid sample of the environment;

identifying particles that fall within an interaction zone, the interaction zone corresponding to a concentration range for at least a first element found in the first material and at least a second element found in at least the second material, the concentration range defined by upper and lower limits that vary as a function of a given element, the upper limit corresponding to a minimum concentration for the given element in the first material and the lower limit corresponding to a maximum concentration for the given element in the second material;

determining a level of interaction based on a quantity of particles within the interaction zone, comprising;

determining a percentage of the first material and a percentage of the second material that forms a given particle by minimizing an equation, for every particle, for a concentration of the first material from zero to 100%, the equation comprising;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first element and the second element are found in the first material and the second material at different concentrations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a level of interaction comprises identifying a quantity of particles within a subset of the interaction zone.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the subset of the interaction zone corresponds to a critical zone based on historical observations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first material is a first alloy and the second material is a second alloy.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first alloy is on a first component and the second alloy is on a second component.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the environment is an engine and the fluid sample is a lubricant of the engine.

8. A system for evaluating a condition of at least one component from an environment having at least a first material and a second material different in chemical composition from the first material, the system comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory; and

an application stored in the memory and executable by the processor for;

obtaining chemical composition data of a plurality of particles filtered from a fluid sample of the environment;

identifying particles that fall within an interaction zone, the interaction zone corresponding to a concentration range for at least a first element found in the first material and at least a second element found in at least the second material, the concentration range defined by upper and lower limits that vary as a function of a given element, the upper limit corresponding to a minimum concentration for the given element in the first material and the lower limit corresponding to a maximum concentration for the given element in the second material;

determining a level of interaction based on a quantity of particles within the interaction zone, comprising;

determining a percentage of the first material and a percentage of the second material that forms a given particle by minimizing an equation, for every particle, for a concentration of the first material from zero to 100%, the equation comprising;

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first element and the second element are found in the first material and the second material at different concentrations.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determining a level of interaction comprises identifying a quantity of particles within a subset of the interaction zone.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the subset of the interaction zone corresponds to a critical zone based on historical observations.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first material is a first alloy and the second material is a second alloy.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first alloy is on a first component and the second alloy is on a second component.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the environment is an engine and the fluid sample is a lubricant of the engine.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program code executable by a processor for carrying out a method for evaluating a condition of at least one component from an environment having at least a first material and a second material different in chemical composition from the first material, the program code comprising instructions for:

obtaining chemical composition data of a plurality of particles filtered from a fluid sample of the environment;

identifying particles that fall within an interaction zone, the interaction zone corresponding to a concentration range for at least a first element found in the first material and at least a second element found in at least the second material, the concentration range defined by upper and lower limits that vary as a function of a given element, the upper limit corresponding to a minimum concentration for the given element in the first material and the lower limit corresponding to a maximum concentration for the given element in the second material;

determining a level of interaction based on a quantity of particles within the interaction zone, comprising;

determining a percentage of the first material and a percentage of the second material that forms a given particle by minimizing an equation, for every particle, for a concentration of the first material from zero to 100%, the equation comprising;