Proceedings of the American Control Conference

Chicago, Illinois June 2000

Remaining Useful Life Prediction of Automotive Engine Oils Using MEMS Technologies'

S. Jagannathan and G.V.S. Raju

Intelligent Systems Laboratory
The University of Texas at San Antonio
6900 North Loop 1604 West
San Antonio, Texas 78249.

Abstract effects and driving styles. Therefore, a sensor-based approach is

This paper proposes a novel adaptive methodology where both
micro-sensors and models are used in conjunction with neural
network/fuzzy classification algorithm to predict the quality of
engine oils. The condition of the engine oil is defined as a single
variable and trended. Advanced prognostic algorithms are then
applied on the oil condition trends to predict the remaining useful
life of engine oils. Experimental results are given.
1. Introduction
Considerable effort is being aimed by many automotive,
earthmoving and construction, aerospace, DOD, navy and others
[l-21 to extend the engine oil drain intervals beyond the periods
currently recommended without affecting engine's life. This is
being driven by oil costs, oil disposal costs, reduced maintenance
and regulatory environmental concerns. A reliable means of
monitoring the oil condition is through the use of an intelligent
on-board DIP system, which will permit new kind of predictive or
just-in-time maintenance (JIT), and that, could save oil usage and
costs and it will improve the environment. Since this area
involves proprietary information, historical data collection,
application, environmental factors and driving habits, not many
papers report the research results.
In [l-21, overviews of oil drain interval problem are given
where they present the difficulties to be addressed for
diagnostic/prognostic (DIP) applications. Problems include
determination of engine oil degradation and operational factors,
development of sensors to measure oil quality, generation of on-
board models using data, and obviating the need for a dual
approach with sensors and model-based methodology. Literature
is also reported for diagnostic application of engines using model-
based, sensor-based methods and a combination thereof [SI.
Many factors affect engine oil performance including
viscosity, total acid number (TAN), total base number (TBN), soot
accumulation, contaminants, engine operational factors such as
engine speed, load and so on. Present oil analysis is usually done
off-line with a complex chemical laboratory benchmark procedure
and specialized interpretation skills. Oil may significantly
degrade before the next oil sample is analyzed. Also, since a
change in oil viscosity implies that the oil has significantly
degraded, the need for an on-line method for oil degradation is
even more apparent.
Though model-based approach for oil life prediction results in
low cost, the method is only as good as the underlying data that is
used in deriving the model. Also, since the oil deterioration is a
complex process, it is not only very expensive to create a model
through standard laboratory tests, driving tests and oil analysis
results but also impossible to create an accurate model for all
engine operating conditions, oil types and brands, environmental
chosen as an alternative.
On the other hand, there are currently no sensors available that
accurately and reliably measure the condition of engine oils.
Further, several oil parameters need to be measured and even if
sensors are deployed, models are still required to process sensor
data and to predict the condition of engine oils. Studies
conducted by the authors [6-71 and others at Daimler-Chrysler [ 11
conclude that a hybrid, also referred to as dual approach
(combination of sensors and models), has to be used to extend oil
drain intervals.
Oxidation, antioxidant breakdown, additive depletion, soot
accumulation, total acid numbedtotal base number, oil
consumption, wear metals are considered prognostic indicators
[1,6]. What makes these indicators predictable is their strong
dependence upon the engine operating conditions, oil type and
brand, and application and environmental factors. In this paper, a
novel hybrid approach is proposed to create an on-board
intelligent DIP system (IODPS) through monitoring engine
operating conditions, measuring oil parameters, and correlating
this information with oil condition. This IODPS will comprise of
several microsensors, referred here as microsensor web, with
intelligent on-line learning algorithms. Microsensor web, which is
developed based upon micro-mechanical systems (MEMS)
technology, will be deployed to measure proenostic indicators.
Intelligent algorithms based on neural networks that are
presented in this paper use the prognostic indicators to obtain the
engine oil condition parameter. This oil condition parameter is
then trended and advanced prognostic techniques are applied to
determine the remaining useful life. Experimental results are
presented to illustrate the proposed methodology.
2. Methodology
Figure 1 illustrates the proposed methodology for extending
oil drain intervals using engine operational factors, oil parameters
and driving habits. This methodology will consists of a
microsensor web to measure pressure, temperature, sump oil level
and temperature, relative humidity, coolant temperature, engine
rack and so on and on-board models. Capacitive sensors with
temperature compensation will be used to measure contaminants
in engine oil. A survey of microsensors is given in [3] and for
automotive applications in [4]. Based on the existing literature, it
is safe to say that temperature, pressure and level sensors are
available in MEMS technologies whereas more work is required
to measure acidity or else the amount of remaining alkali base
present in these engine oils.
Microsensors measure oxidation, TAN, TBN, dispersants and
additives. In fact, Bio-MEMS group at Ohio State University [ 11
has developed a sensor that measures pH value, which correlates
with TAN. Under certain conditions, antioxidants in the oil could

This work is supported by an NSF Grant

0-7803-5519-9/00 $10.00 0 2000 AACC 351 1
be measured as well using this sensor. Similar to measuring TAN,
the investigators envision that additive depletion and TBN can be
measured using suitable microsensors, which is attempted in this
work. In fact, a MEMS-based sensor was developed by coating
the electrodes of the sensor appropriately with a zinc and
aluminum compound, which will correlate with additives. A
MEMS-based sensor was used to measure TBN.
Oil consumption and amount of oil added to the sump can be
measured with MEMS level sensors [4-51. Therefore, it is clear
that an array of microsensors can be deployed to measure
prognostic indicators though MEMS sensors are currently
unavailable to measure wear metals. Future work involves
developing microsensors for wear metals. In this work, data was
collected and analyzed off-line to create the oil condition
parameter using both sensors and models. To fuse information
from sensors and models, a NN is used through back propagation.
The prognostic indicators for engine oils and engine
operational factors are used as inputs under a set of detectability
conditions (similar to observability concept in control theory) are
presented to the NN to create the oil degradation parameter.
Apriori data, based on several engine tests, is used to train the
hybrid neurdfuzzy structure and to arrive at a valid oil
degradation value. This value will be used as an input to the
proposed data analysis methods. Intelligent data analysis methods
were applied on these prognostic indicators by comparing the
trend values against predefined limits. If any or a combination of
these indicators, crossed the limits, a prognostic warning message
was created to alert the appropriate personnel. The outcome is the
remaining life, time left to change the engine oil and the
associated confidence.
3. Results
An automotive diesel engine was selected. Data was collected
by running the engine under different loading conditions. This
essentially involved running the automobile engine around the
city for a number of hours, An oil sample was collected at every
hour and analyzed. All the required prognostic indicators were
measured and used by the neuro-fuzzy scheme to generate the oil
condition trend. In fact, off-line analysis was performed to
evaluate the condition of the engine oil and a normalized value
Figure 1: On-board intelligent diagnostic/prognostic system.
was obtained to denote the oil condition at that sampling instant.
This value was used as the desired value for tuning the networks
off-line using backpropagation. Further, fuzzy rules were also
employed
- - to train the neural networks. After several leaming
cycles, the neural network was able to reproduce the oil condition
351 2
value, provided the prognostic indicators are applied at its input.
Here 6 input nodes, 5 hidden-layer neurons, and one output node
was selected for the neural network. This oil condition trend is
used as an input to the advanced data analysis module [5]. The
output of the module is a linear approximation of the trend as
shown in Figure 2. Using the linear approximation and the limit
values, the remaining useful life is calculated. If the linear
approximated value crosses the limits, then an event is generated
as shown in Figure 2.
4. Conclusions
This paper presents a hybrid approach of predicting the
quality and remaining useful life of engine oils for industrial and
automotive applications. Oxidation, antioxidant breakdown,
additive depletion, soot accumulation, total acid numbedtotal base
number, oil consumption, wear metals were considered prognostic
indicators based on a detailed study. It was shown that oil quality
could be predicted from these indicators since the engine
operating conditions, oil types and brand, and application and
environmental factors influences these indicators.
Using these indicators, a novel hybrid approach is proposed to
create an on-board intelligent D/P system (IODPS) that can
monitor engine operating conditions, measure oil parameters and
correlate this information with oil condition. An oil condition
trend was generated using a hybrid neuro fuzzy system.
Advanced data analysis methods were deployed to predict the
remaining useful life. Results were presented after conducting
experiments from an engine. The proposed methodology was
successfully,used to determine the condition of engine oils.
_- -
I
t .. ,
WC..
-
. -
-PI
,”’
L
*,.I..
Figure 2: Automobile Engine Oil Life Prediction,
5. References
1) J. DeGaspari, “Recording Oil’s Vital Signs”, Mech.
Engineering Magazine, pp. 54-56, May 1999.
2) T. Stevens, “Keep ‘EM Running”, Industrial World, pp. 38-41,
October 6, 1997.
3) H. Fujita, “A Decade of MEMS and its Future”,
Conference on Industrial Svstems, pp.112-118.
4) D.S. Eddy and D.R. Sparks, “Application of MEMS
Technology in Automotive Sensors and Actuators”, hoc. of the
m, vol. 86, no.8, pp.1747-1755. Aug. 1998.
5) S . Jagannathan, “Method and Apparatus for Predicting a Fault
Condition”, Patent Allowed, June 1999.
6) S. Jagannathan, D. R. Schricker, T. Simpson, “System and
Apparatus for determining the condition of engine oil based on
soot modeling”, US Patent No. 5.914.890June 1999.
7) S . Jagannathan, “System and Apparatus to monitor the
condition of engine oils by TBN modeling”, US Patent N o
5.987.976, November 1999.