EVALUATION OF COMPONENT CONDITION THROUGH ANALYSIS OF MATERIAL INTERACTION

摘要

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.

主权项

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 one of the first material and the second material, and the lower limit corresponding to a maximum concentration for the given element in the other of the first material and the second material; determining a level of interaction based on a quantity of particles within the interaction zone; and assigning a condition rating to the at least one component as a function of the level of interaction.