SENSING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20160187277A1
• Filed: 03/03/2016
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Go, Steven Y., Potyrailo, Radislav Alexandrovich, Sexton, Daniel White
• Granted Patent: US 10,746,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/026 Dielectric impedance spectroscopy electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for measuring corrosion G01N17/02
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/2888 Lubricating oil characteristics, e.g. deterioration lubricating properties G01N33/30

Abstract

A sensor system includes a multi-frequency sensor assembly including a single sensor body housing with a sensing region circuit and a sensor reader disposed in the sensor body. The sensor body is configured to be in operational contact with a fluid. The sensing region circuit is configured to generate different electric fields having different frequencies in the fluid. The sensor reader includes one or more processors configured to examine one or more impedance responses of the sensing region circuit at different frequencies and to determine one or more properties of the fluid based on the one or more impedance responses that are examined.

Claims

1. A sensor system comprising:

a multi-frequency sensor assembly including a single sensor body housing with a sensing region circuit and a sensor reader disposed in the sensor body, the sensor body configured to be in operational contact with a fluid, the sensing region circuit configured to generate different electric fields having different frequencies in the fluid, the sensor reader including one or more processors configured to examine one or more impedance responses of the sensing region circuit at different frequencies and to determine one or more properties of the fluid based on the one or more impedance responses that are examined.

2. The sensor system of claim 1, wherein the sensor reader is configured to acquire measurements of the one or more impedance responses from the sensing region circuit at a resolution of one or more of 8 bit, 12 bit, or 16 bit.

3. The sensor system of claim 1, wherein the sensor reader is configured to acquire measurements of the one or more properties of the fluid at a resolution greater than 16 bit by one or more of filtering or averaging the measurements.

4. The sensor system of claim 1, wherein the single sensor body housing is configured to protect the sensing region circuit and the sensor reader from damage caused by temperatures up to 250 degrees Celsius.

5. The sensor system of claim 1, wherein the single sensor body housing is configured to operate the sensing region circuit and the sensor reader at temperatures up to 250 degrees Celsius.

6. A sensor system comprising:

a multi-frequency sensor assembly including a single sensor body housing with a sensing region circuit and a sensor reader disposed in the sensor body, the sensor body configured to be in operational contact with an industrial fluid, the sensing region circuit configured to generate different electric fields having different frequencies in the fluid, the sensor reader including one or more processors configured to examine one or more impedance spectra of the sensing region circuit and to determine one or more properties of the fluid based on the one or more impedance spectra that are examined.

7. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader is configured to determine one or more of an amount of contaminants in the fluid or an age of the fluid as the one or more properties of the fluid based on the one or more impedance spectra that are examined.

8. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensing region circuit is a non-resonant circuit for the frequencies of the electric fields generated by the sensing region circuit in the fluid.

9. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensing region circuit is a resonant circuit for the frequencies of the electric fields generated by the sensing region circuit in the fluid.

10. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensing region circuit is configured to generate the electric fields with the resonant frequencies being non-harmonic resonant frequencies.

11. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensing region circuit is configured to generate the frequencies by sweeping through the frequencies.

12. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensing region circuit is configured to generate the frequencies by stepping through the frequencies such that discrete frequencies are generated at different times for different, non-zero periods of time.

13. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensing region circuit includes an inductor-capacitor-resistor (LCR) resonator.

14. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor body housing is hermetically sealed from the fluid.

15. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor body housing is configured to provide radio frequency shielding to the sensing region circuit.

16. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader is configured to communicate a digital output signal to an external controller that represents at least one of the impedance spectra of the sensing region circuit or the properties of the fluid.

17. The sensor system of claim 16, wherein the sensor reader is configured to communicate the digital output signal as one or more of a wireless signal or a signal communicated to the external controller via a wired connection.

18. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader has a digital address for communication with an external controller.

19. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader is configured to provide digital data security for communication between the sensor reader and one or more external controllers.

20. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor assembly is configured to be powered via ambient energy harvesting.

21. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor assembly is configured to be powered via wirelessly supplied power.

22. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader and the sensing region are configured to be calibrated for external conditions by one or more external controllers.

23. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader is configured to excite the sensing region using multi-frequency excitation with a sliding window correlator for wide band measurements, and wherein the sensing region is configured to measure response of the sensor assembly over a spectral range from 10 Hz to 10 GHz.

24. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader is configured to excite the sensing region using multi-frequency excitation via one or more resonators.

25. The sensor system of claim 24, wherein the one or more resonators are one or more active resonators.

26. The sensor system of claim 24, wherein the one or more resonators are one or more passive resonators.

27. The sensor system of claim 6, wherein the sensor reader is configured to excite the sensing region using multicarrier wideband excitation.