Engine oil system health monitoring using oil level sensor
AssigneeProgress Rail Locomotive Inc.
InventorsAdarsh G. NAIR, Christopher B. HILL
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for determining engine oil system health includes determining an oil level in an engine oil sump of an engine, determining an oil consumption rate of the engine based on a current oil volume and a time at which the oil was last replenished, determining a remaining useful oil volume based on the oil consumption rate and duty cycle data of the engine, and generating an alert in response to the oil consumption rate being greater than a predetermined threshold, the alert comprising a command to a controller associated with the engine to cause the engine to perform an action.
Claims20
A method for determining engine oil system health, the method comprising:
- determining an oil level in an engine oil sump of an engine;
- determining an oil consumption rate of the engine based on a current oil volume and a time at which the oil was last replenished;
- determining a remaining useful oil volume based on the oil consumption rate and duty cycle data of the engine;
- and
- generating an alert in response to the oil consumption rate being greater than a predetermined threshold, the alert comprising a command to a controller associated with the engine to cause the engine to perform an action.
A system for monitoring engine system oil health, the system comprising:
- an oil sump of an engine;
- an oil level sensor for determining oil level in the oil sump;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine an oil fill schedule based at least partially on the oil level,
- wherein the oil fill schedule includes a date or range of dates at which oil in the oil sump should be replenished.
A method for determining an estimated fill schedule for an engine oil system, the method comprising:
- determining an oil level in an engine sump of an engine;
- determining an oil volume in the engine sump based on the oil level;
- determining an oil consumption rate of the engine based on the oil volume;
- and
- determining an estimated fill schedule for the oil based on the oil consumption rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.