Wear sensors for monitoring seal wear in bearing arrangements

A bearing arrangement, comprising:

• a bearing compartment housing a bearing assembly;
• a seal assembly configured to impound a lubricant within the bearing compartment, the seal assembly comprising:
• a first seal member having a first seal member contact face;
• a second seal member having a second seal member contact face, wherein, in operation, the second seal member contact face is fixed relative to an inner race of the bearing assembly;
• seal member biasing means that bias the first seal member contact face into frictional engagement with the second seal member contact face to impound the lubricant within the bearing compartment;
• a wear sensor fixed relative to the first seal member having:
• an encapsulation body with a wear face, wherein the encapsulation body has a wear coefficient greater than a wear coefficient of the first seal member;
• a sacrificial conductor embedded within the encapsulation body and spaced apart from the wear face;
• and
• a monitoring lead extending into the encapsulation body and connected to the sacrificial conductor;
• and
• a resistance meter in electrical communication with the sacrificial conductor, wherein the resistance meter comprises a processor in communication with a non-transitory machine readable medium with instructions recorded on it that, when read by the processor, cause the processor to:
• apply a voltage to the sacrificial conductor;
• measure an electrical parameter of the sacrificial conductor;
• and
• provide an indication of seal wear when the measurement of the electrical parameter indicates that the sacrificial conductor is electrically discontinuous.