Microwave Evaluation of Used-Oil Quality Degradation PDF

Keywords

Microwave, evaluation, energy measurement, used oil, quality degradation

Abstract

This paper describes sensitivity of microwaves to the chemical specification variations of an oil fill used in a combustion engine. The evaluation of used oil quality degradation in a combustion engine by measuring the complex dielectric constant (complex permittivity) in the frequency range of X-band (8.5- 10.5 GHz) and Ku-band (17.63-18.07 Ghz) is investigated. A completely filled short-circuited waveguide technique was used to perform these dielectric measurements. The results have shown that for the frequencies in both X and Ku bands, the dielectric constant and the loss tangent increase as a function of oil usage measured by mileage. The measurements in the X-band give more variation in the complex dielectric constant than the measurements in the Ku-band. It is believed that the oil quality degradation is related not only to the amount of oil usage, but also to the combustion engine state. The analysis procedure as well as experimental results are presented