Method for determining a life condition of a vibration damper or absorber, and arrangement for carrying out such a method

A method for determining a service life condition of a vibration damper, the method comprising:

• providing a vibration damper having a primary mass and a secondary mass, and having a working chamber which is arranged between the primary mass and the secondary mass and is filled with a viscous damping medium, wherein the vibration damper is arranged on a crankshaft of an engine in order to dampen or eliminate torsional vibrations of the crankshaft;
• S1) operating the engine;
• S2) determining at least one operating parameter of the engine, the at least one operating parameter comprising an operating time of the engine;
• S3) simulating a temperature distribution of the viscous damping medium in the working chamber based at least in part on the operating time of the engine;
• and
• S4) determining a lifetime condition of the vibration damper based on the at least one operating parameter of the engine and a result of the simulating of the temperature distribution of the viscous damping medium;
• wherein the simulation of the temperature distribution is carried out as a temperature field of the viscous damping medium for different operating states of the engine;
• wherein by way of simulation values of the temperature field of the viscous damping medium, an associated degradation rate of the damping medium is determined and compared with previously stored values of degradation rates of the damping medium as reference values;
• and
• wherein an output, an alarm, and/or a warning is given during the comparison when a previously definable limit value is exceeded.