Fluid condition monitoring sensors for diesel engine control

Online monitoring of liquid operating media is an essential new tool to increase engine efficiency and to meet increasingly stringent exhaust gas requirements (e.g.. EU4/5). In this contribution, we present novel results on diesel applications of the prototype of an oil condition sensor. We demonstrate the advantages of simultaneous viscosity, permittivity, and temperature measurement for the efficient discrimination between different oil aging mechanisms. Besides permittivity and viscosity sensors, IR-spectroscopy is a new powerful tool for fluid condition monitoring. We present first results for a new prototype IR-sensor for engine fuels and show its capability to determine the concentration of alternative engine fuels like FAME (fatty acid methyl esther, "biodiesel") and ethanol as an example.