Turbomachines, for example, gas turbines and/or steam turbines, use lubricating oil to reduce the frictional coefficient between machine components. While many turbomachines are delivered and installed by a manufacturing and/or selling entity, these turbomachines are frequently managed (over their lifetime) by the customer that purchases the turbomachine. In order to ensure that the lubricating oil in the turbomachine maintains a sufficient quality level to provide lubrication, the customer conventionally draws a sample of the oil and sends it to a laboratory for testing. However, some customers improperly draw the oil samples, which can compromise accuracy of the testing. Others do not draw samples frequently enough to properly monitor the condition of the oil.
In other industries, for example, the automotive industry, lubricating oil quality is estimated using empirical data that is tied to an expected lifetime of the oil based upon performance parameters of an automobile. In these cases, an automobile's monitoring system monitors the performance of the vehicle, e.g., speed, acceleration, braking, etc., and based upon the performance of the vehicle, estimates a time at which the lubricating oil will degrade in quality. These automotive systems do not, however, test the lubricating oil to determine its quality.
Due to the deficiencies in the above-noted techniques for monitoring lubricating oil quality, it is difficult to accurately assess the quality of lubricating oil in a turbomachine.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds