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Wear Debris Concentration Measurement by Laser Beam Attenuation

The size and concentration of wear debris in lubricating oil often reveal the operating condition of the rotating machinery. To evaluate the possible application of light attenuation measurement for the estimation of wear debris concentration in the lubricating oil, the light transmittance through the lubricating oil cell contaminated with various concentrations of diatomite particles was measured, the attenuation coefficient was estimated from the transmittance measurement and the coefficients were compared with those obtained from the scattering theory. The comparision showed good agreements between them. It is also noted that the experimentally determined attenuation coefficient showed almost linear relation with particle weight concentrations for the concentrations within the range of 2000 ppm. For the case of 0 ppm weight concentration of diatomite particles in the lubricating oil cell, the thickness of the cell required to give $100 \mu W$ light attenuation is 7.75 mm. This result indicates that the light attenuation method will be one of the possible candidates of machine failure diagnostic sensors for the estimation of wear debris concentration in the lubricating oil.