Sensorized sealing system

A sealing system comprising:

• a seal mounted in a gap between two concentrically mounted, relatively rotatable components, the seal retaining a liquid at an oil side of the seal;
• a sensor for sensing a parameter of interest associated with the liquid and for providing a sensor signal;
• a collection trough mounted at an air side of the seal, at a location where any leaked liquid will gather at a bottom of the trough, wherein the sensor is arranged in the trough;
• and
• processing means for processing the sensor signal and determining the parameter of interest, wherein,
• the sensor is a magneto-elastic resonance (MER) sensor, with
• a magneto-elastic resonator having a first resonating element which vibrates at a first resonant frequency in response to a time-varying magnetic field, wherein
• the resonator produces a sensor signal in the form of a time-varying magnetic flux signal, dependent on the first resonant frequency,
• the processing means is adapted to extract the first resonant frequency from the sensor signal and to determine the parameter of interest based on the first resonant frequency
• wherein the parameter of interest is leakage and the MER sensor is mounted at a location in the trough where at least the first resonating element will come into contact with any liquid that has leaked past the seal, such that a detected shift in the first resonant frequency is indicative of leakage, and
• an edge of the first resonating element is arranged below a level of maximum permitted leakage and the processing means is adapted to determine a rate of leakage from a detected rate of change in the first resonating frequency.