Your Oil is Talking, but Are

You Listening?
Controlling and Monitoring Oil Contaminants

By Steffen D. Nyman, C.C.JENSEN and Noria Partner, Denmark

 Your Oil is Talking

As modern machines have evolved, so have the lubrication systems. Today, increasing demand
is put upon lubricants in terms of operating temperatures, loads, efficiencies and performance.
The oil film between system components is only a few microns thick, invisible to the human
eye, so it is essential to control and monitor contamination effectively.
Studies have shown that up to 80% of oil related machine failures are caused by contaminated
oil, so it is a fact that cleaner oil leads to longer component life and increased operational
reliability, but clean oil also enables an operator to detect small changes in online and
laboratory analysis, thereby detecting abnormal wear patterns before a breakdown.

Why is clean oil and diesel necessary?

Any machine that uses oil for lubrication or power transfer is depending on the condition of the
oil. Oil is essential for friction reduction and should be regarded as important as the blood in
our bodies. The primary objective of keeping oil clean in a hydraulic or lubrication system is for
protection of machine components to optimize reliability and function, as the consequential
cost of a breakdown and loss of availability is very high. Malfunction of a gear or hydraulic
system will result in consequential
damages, expensive downtime and
even QSHE issues.

The secondary objective is to reduce

operation costs by prolonging the
useful life of all system components,
as well as the oil, to ensure optimum
economic performance and highest
return on investment. In most oil
systems, you’ll find silt particles of
between 1-10 microns, with 1 micron
Illustration 1. Oil is found in all applications (µm) equalling 1/1000mm. In
comparison, a human hair has a diameter of 70µm. Most particles are invisible to the naked
eye, but can enter the oil system in large numbers via system openings e.g. shaft seals and
inadequate air vents/breathers.

Airborne particles are highly abrasive, as they get trapped in the oil film clearances in between
gear teeth, valve plungers and housings, or between the piston and cylinder in a piston pump.

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 Your Oil is Talking

The result is abrasive wear, known as seizing or grinding, which can generate wear rates a
thousand times greater than that anticipated by the machine manufacturer.

The same applies to the combustion of diesel and gas oil, where impurities in the form of
particles and water accelerate wear on the fuel pump, needle valves in injectors, and other
components in the fuel system. Modern common-rail diesel engines with high injection
pressures have very fine tolerances, typically 2-5µm, so very clean diesel is required.

Benefits of clean oil

Contamination control will result in increased operational availability and reliability, increased
machine life due to reduced component wear, an extended oil in service life producing less
waste oil and sludge, thus decreasing the carbon footprint and environmental impact.

Contaminants in oil

By definition, contaminants are anything which should not be in the oil, but most often we
focus on three basic types: solid particles, water, and oil oxidation/degradation products (also
referred to as varnish).

Solids
Solid particles are extremely damaging, as they accelerate wear on
e.g. pumps, valves, bearings and gears. Most damaging particles are
of clearance size i.e. typical less than 10µm. Wear metals present in
the oil will also act as catalysts to speed up the oil degradation
process, resulting in varnish. Illu. 2. Solids

Water
Water in oil will cause damage such as micro-pitting and hydrogen
embrittlement in pumps, gears and bearings, and is a catalyst for both
rust and varnish. Water can also cause bacterial growth and sludge,
particularly in diesel and stern tube oil.

Illu. 3. Water

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 Your Oil is Talking

Varnish
Oil oxidation/degradation reduces oil in service life considerably. The
degradation process forms soft contaminants which falls out as
varnish and sludge in colder areas of the oil system, and result in
sticking valves, blocked heat-exchangers and accelerated wear due
to the so-called ‘sandpaper effect’ when solids adhere to a sticky
Illu. 4. Varnish
varnish layer.

The most harmful particles are those of similar

size or slightly bigger than the dynamic oil film
thickness between the moving parts in the oil
system. The illustration 5 shows the distribution
of particles by size in a typical lubrication oil. Only
10 percent of all particles in the system are larger
than 10µm, while about 70-80 percent of the
particles are below 5µm, thus being quite difficult
to capture in a normal pressure line filter (in-line).

Illu. 5. Particle size distribution in oil

How to ensure oil cleanliness

To ensure optimum oil and diesel cleanliness, you will need to limit ingression of contaminants,
as well as removing all contaminants already found in the oil (particles, water and varnish). This
is most effectively done by combining the follow elements:

- An air breather with minimum 10µm filter and preferably a desiccant using silica gel for
moisture absorption. A hybrid version, including a bladder, will prolong the life of the
desiccant.
- An inline pressure filter of 10-15µm with an efficiency above 99 per cent (Beta10 > 100).
- An offline/kidney loop depth filter capable of removing 3µm particles, bacteria, varnish
and water. This should be connected to the most contaminated location i.e. drawing oil
from the bottom drain and returning clean oil to the other end of the tank. The offline

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 Your Oil is Talking

oil filter should be able to clean the oil from all contaminants as well as having a large
dirt holding capacity, which will reduce filter operation cost.

Illu. 6. Installation principle of in-line and offline filters

Monitoring oil contamination

An effective contamination control program should be combined with regular monitoring of the
oil’s condition, in order to learn about the condition of components and machines. Oil
monitoring can be accomplished using on-site tests, but should also be verified by online
sensors or laboratory tests. Oil sampling procedures should be carried out by trained personnel
to ensure representative and consistent samples during machinery operation, and to make sure
a data trend (history) can be followed.

How often the oil in use should be analyzed depends on the criticality of the system. It is
recommended to take oil samples at least every three months from the following systems:

- Hydraulic systems
- Gear boxes
- Engine lubrication oil
- Turbines
- Main bearings
- Pumps

An oil sample will reveal lots of information about the oil properties and condition of the
equipment, even before shipping the sample to a lab. Onsite tests and tools can help you
translate information into corrective actions and possibly avoid machine breakdown.

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Visual inspection

Look at the oil color. Is it comparable to new oil? Oil oxidation changes the
color from amber to dark brown. Black oil is usually caused by soot from
combustion by-products (engine lube oil) or micro-dieseling in hydraulic
fluid due to entrained air in the suction of a pump.

Can you see any large wear particles, as a black or shiny sediment? These
Illu. 7.
are larger than 100µm.
Use a crackle test to show the water level above 1,000 ppm (oil drop on hot plate). Look for
cloudiness, emulsions, or free water – does water ingress into the oil system?
Shake the sample bottle and look for stable foam and how fast any foam is reduced.
Check the oil demulsibility by mixing oil with water at a ratio of 50/50 and time the separation.
An emulsion of more than 5 percent, or water separating slower than 20 minutes, will severely
harm the water separation efficiency by coalescence or centrifugal separation. Engine oil, esters
and glycols will keep the water dissolved or as emulsion and will not show free water
separating from the oil.

Blotter spot test

A drop of used engine oil on chromatographic paper will reveal soot,

glycol and fuel dilution. Excessive soot contamination will cause the
dispersant additives to deplete and the soot particles to agglomerate,
forming larger particles and producing increased oil viscosity. On the
Illu. 8. blotter paper this will form a black spot. Engine lube oil with a good
additive package will lift soot particles easily and show a dark grey color
across the paper. Glycol can be located as black sticky paste with a sharp edged periphery,
making the oil unable to travel on the paper. Fuel dilution can be detected when inspected
under UV light, as a fluorescent ring will appear.

Inspect a used filter element

Examine a piece of used filter element to look for shiny particles from metal
wear, such as iron and brass. Iron wear particles are usually magnetic, so if
a strong neodymium magnet can lift the filter material, you have problems
with machine wear. Note that iron particles can be black like soot,
Illu. 9.
shiny/silver color, or amber/brown like varnish. If a magnet can lift a piece

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of the filter, have a laboratory perform a WPC or PQ test.

Using a USB microscope at a magnification of 200-400 times will reveal the color, size, and
shape of captured particles. Photos of magnified particles are more eloquent than a thousand
words, and will help you to understand a wear situation.

Changing oil

Oils are often replaced because the lab report says so. This recommendation is usually based on
a change in viscosity or acidity (TBN/TAN), or high levels of dirt, water, varnish or metal
particles. Quite often the discarded oil is actually in chemically good condition, and could
therefore have lasted much longer. The properties may still be intact, but the oil is just too
dirty, the water content is too high, or the oxidation/varnish level has increased.

All of these contaminants can actually be removed from oil. If you spend five minutes reading
the oil analysis report, you should be able to see where the problem is. So instead of just
replacing the oil, you might be able to clean it without having to change it. And most
importantly - find the cause for the contamination, and solve it, so it will not result in similar
problems in the future.

Online oil analysis

Online technologies are becoming increasingly popular and for a good reason. Online oil
sensors can give you access to historic data (the trend) and can help you predict serious wear
situations. The best condition monitoring systems are considering oil condition, water content
and particle count as well as machine operation load in combination. Oil condition and water
content sensors correlate to the oil’s quality, while particle counters relate to equipment
condition. Combining both enables optimum condition estimation for any oil system.

Obtaining the optimal installation point for the online sensors is vital to get the most
representative data. Tests have shown that the offline circuit is an ideal place for online
analysis, due to the continuous homogeneous flow, stable temperature conditions and suction
from the bottom of tank/sump. Optimal conditions are thereby present for evaluation and
measurement of particles and general oil condition.

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 Your Oil is Talking

Oil oxidation and condition sensors

Oil quality sensor

Condition sensors typically measure the oil’s quality by impedance

spectroscopy, which correlates to oil degradation by oxidation,
acidity, soot and water content. The sensors can be used to assess
the oil properties and recommend actions such as top-up, filtration
or full oil change. Monitoring enables you to take actions prior to
Illu. 10. severe degradation of the oil, or discover if general oil properties
are out of specification.

The graph (Illu. 11) shows results from an oil condition sensor (CJC® OQM) on a hydraulic
system with increasing oxidation rates over a period of two months. The high level of
oxidation/varnish in the oil tells the operator to schedule an oil change or to install a varnish
removal equipment, such as an offline cellulose depth filter.

Illu. 11. Indicating oil degradation, varnish

Degraded oil often results in varnish layers causing seizing of hydraulic valves as well as
increased viscosity, which create problems like increased friction and heat. In addition, the oil
may be difficult to pump, leading to starvation. Oil oxidation and varnish can subsequently
result in malfunction in turbines and hydraulic systems, which may force a shut down.

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 Your Oil is Talking

Water monitored by sensors is rarely giving as exact amount of moisture in ppm/percent, since
this depends severely on oil type, additive package, temperature etc. More often sensors are
giving humidity in a percentage related to the oil’s saturation point, called %RS or %RH.

Water in oil

Water can be found in oil as:

- Dissolved water: the water molecules are dispersed one-by-one throughout the oil, like
humidity in air;
- Emulsified water: microscopic globules of water are dispersed in stable suspension in
the oil, like fog;
- Free water: water that readily settles to the bottom; like rain.

The states of water in oil will change depending on the base oil type, additives, pressure and
temperature. When the water state changes from dissolved into either emulsion or free water,
we have passed the saturation point (100 %RS or %RH) for a given oil type, temperature and
pressure.

A mineral-based hydraulic oil may have a saturation point of around 200ppm water in oil at
30°C (86°F), but the same oil may dissolve up to 500ppm of water at 65°C (150°F), before
reaching 100 percent saturation point. Therefore 50 percent RH will correspond to around
250ppm at 65°C (150°F). It is recommended to be below 60%RH at operation temperature, to
avoid free water or emulsions being formed when the oil system cools down (see illu. 12).

A practical example for usage of an online oil humidity sensor, could be on a steam turbine or a
marine thruster, where the sensor enables the operator to monitor water ingression and decide
when to install a water separation equipment or to schedule maintenance (replacing seals).
A well maintained turbine or thruster with good lubricating oil may show 10-30%RH during
operation, but if this value increases, it indicates water ingression - often through worn seals.
When the threshold of 60%RH at operation temperature has been surpassed, it is time to install
a water separation equipment (filter separator or centrifugal separator), to avoid free water
falling out of oil solution, which will harm gears and bearings severely. A good filter separator
can remove water from the oil at the same rate as the ingression, so the turbine or ship can
continue operation and schedule an inspection and repair of the seals for later.
An oil analysis will show the same trend of water in oil, but since oil samples are often taken
every 3 to 6 months, the failure will progress during this period. An online humidity sensor will
detect the problem within hours and enable the operator to act fast and proactively.

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 Your Oil is Talking

Saturation levels for different oil types

Other oil types will have different

saturation points, with SAE engine lube
oils and glycols having the highest, holding
several thousand ppm water in solution
(some up to 10%). Furthermore, engine
oils will create mainly emulsions and rarely
separate any free water.

Illu. 12.

Online particle counting

Particles are always being created during machine operation, depending on load, rotational
speed, oil temperature etc., but if the oil is kept free from contaminants then wear will be
reduced to a minimum. Furthermore, it is much easier to discover abnormal wear when the oil
cleanliness is good, compared to seeing an increase in a very dirty oil.

Let’s say that a worn bearing in a gear box generates 50,000 particles larger than 4µm per
100ml of oil. If the oils’ cleanliness is ISO 16/14/11 according to ISO 4406, then it will contain a
maximum of 64,000 particles above 4µm per 100ml, and thus the 50,000 extra wear particles
will be easy to spot. On the other hand, the additional quantity of particles would ‘disappear’ in
dirty oil with 4 million particles per 100ml (ISO 22/20/17). Online particle counters continuously
display information and will, in such cases, give you instant notification that something is
wrong.

Benefits of online particle counting

- Early warning: if the trend increases, a worn component can be replaced before larger
implications e.g. replacing a ball bearing before a total breakdown of the gear box
- Oil analysis and maintenance can be scheduled according to the online data e.g.
showing a wear situation or an oil change is required, again reducing downtime
- Instant data and access to the history/trend can support more precise decision-making
in case of overhauls, as well as improved maintenance practices and intervals.

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Web-based user interface and viewer platforms

One of the available web-based platforms for online

monitoring is the CJC® T2render, which receives data from the
CJC® CMU, Condition Monitoring Unit, incorporating different
sensors. The encrypted data are sent via a secure connection
(GSM, WIFI or Ethernet) to a cloud based solution for further
analysis. The data can be provided directly to a surveillance
system (SCADA system) or be followed on a webpage.
Alarms will be sent to the operator by email or text message
when pre-set limits are surpassed (T2render Basic) or when the
individual system oil and equipment trend varies from normal
operation (T2render Pro). This will reduce complex and time-
consuming sensor data interpretation.
Illu. 13. Condition Monitoring Unit Case 1 - Predicting a gearbox failure (thruster)
with sensors
The following case is from a tug boat operating in the North
Sea close to Denmark. The tug was using online T2render Pro with T2 models for surveillance of
the equipment and oil condition in the thruster gearbox. The sensors involved:

- Thruster gearbox load

- Oil temperature
- Water-in-oil (%RH)
- Wear particles larger than 100µm (Oil debris sensor)
- Particles according to ISO 4406 (4µm, 6µm, 14µm and larger)

On November 27th, they received an alert on T2 Equipment and T2 Oil condition showing a
medium deviation, while combining water %RH increase, high particle count and stable load/oil
temperature. Three days later they get the same warning but now as a major deviation, since
the T2 Equipment and T2 Oil conditions are even more off. The T2render Pro surveillance
systems tell the operator to find the root cause for water ingress into the gear oil and solve it.

The crew installed a CJC® Desorber (water dehydrator) and continued the operation of the tug
until a scheduled docking and repair of the thruster shaft seal.

The online monitoring system saved the ship owner several hundred thousand dollars, since
dry-docking and taking a tug off-hire in the middle of a job is extremely expensive and may
involve fines.

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Illu. 14. T2render case Tug boat

Conclusion

Are you listening to your oil? Controlling and monitoring oil contamination and making use of
the available knowledge will result in huge savings. If you want to improve your oil cleanliness
most effectively, it is best done with a combination of good breathers, in-line filters and offline
depth filters, while monitoring the equipment and oil condition.

Benefits of improving cleanliness and monitoring the oil:

- Increased operational reliability, due to less component wear and better oil conditions
- Extended oil and machine component life, due to less degradation
- Reduced oil consumption, resulting in savings and lower environmental impact
- Less downtime, since problems can be foreseen and maintenance scheduled according
to the analysis results and the wear situation
- Detection and correction of abnormal operation, helping to find root causes more easily
- Detection of changes in oil properties e.g. viscosity loss or additive depletion, which
could course catastrophic machine failures

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- Detection of wear metals in oil, which are a clear sign of machine degradation -
replacing worn components proactively before a major breakdown

Filters, oil analysis and online monitoring equipment includes initial costs, but since the return
on investment is typically less than 12 months, it is good business to install efficient
contamination control equipment and to continuously monitor critical oil systems. For some
critical systems, online monitoring and web-based platforms are needed for additional safety,
and in order to have data trends readily available for interpretation.

In the future we will for sure see more online monitoring of oil systems, because when
operators act immediately it is often possible to avoid downtime. This can be used as a
competitive advantage - offering reliability. We will also see more completely un-maned
machines being controlled solely by online sensors and computer systems, for which online oil
monitoring will be even more important.

More information
For more information about offline filter systems please visit C.C.JENSEN’s main website
www.cjc.dk

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