Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sna

Application of dielectric spectroscopy for engine lubricating oil degradation

monitoring
L. Guan , X.L. Feng, G. Xiong, J.A. Xie
Oil Application and Management Department, Logistical Engineering University, Shapingba District, Chongqing 401311, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 29 September 2010
Received in revised form 15 March 2011
Accepted 15 March 2011
Available online 23 March 2011
Keywords:
Engine lubricating oil
Oil monitoring
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(FTIR)
Dielectric spectroscopy (DS)
Multivariate calibration

a b s t r a c t
In this paper, Dielectric Spectroscopy (DS) was employed to analyze the oxidation degradation process of
engine lubricating oil qualitatively and quantitatively compared with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). It was found that both DS and FTIR can directly obtain the degradation features from
the spectral data. With the combination of DS and multivariate calibration (Partial Least Square PLS),
three main oil monitoring properties including Oxidation Duration (OD), Total Acid Number (TAN) and
Insoluble Content (IC) can be determined quantitatively and accurately. It was proved that operating
temperature had more inuence on DS data than excitation amplitude. The results in the article show
that DS can be developed into an effective oil monitoring/analysis method.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Lubricating oil plays a key role in internal-combustion engines.
It consists of complex mixtures of hydrocarbons and is a combination of base oils and additives [1]. Engine lubricants are used
to reduce the frictions of the mobile components and to keep the
different elements clean, being able to work as detergents and
dispersant agents. The engine lubricating oil ageing process is a
very complex process during which degradation of the base oil
and depletion of its additives take place simultaneously. Oxidative high temperature degradation and contamination by water,
ethylene glycol, fuel, soot, and wear metals are the main factors.
Currently, the main methods for determining engine lubricating
oil condition are the routine physical & chemical tests to assess
the properties including kinematic viscosity, Total Acid Number
(TAN), Total Base Number (TBN) and Insoluble Content (IC), which
are always time-consuming, laborious and require specic equipment for the determination of each property of interest. In this
context, kinds of efcient alternative methods have been developed. Ferrography [25] is currently the prevalent and effective
method to evaluate the wear ferromagnetic particles. Analytical
and direct reading (DR) ferrography are the two main types. As for
determination of wear metals such as Na, Mg, Al, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Cu,
Zn, Mo, Ag, and Cd. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 023 86730900.

E-mail address: gl 200122@163.com (L. Guan).
0924-4247/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sna.2011.03.033

[6,7], atomic spectroscopy [8,9], X-ray uorescence spectroscopy

[10] are already introduced respectively. Visible spectrophotometric detection in association with ow injection analysis (FIA-visible
spectrometry) is proposed and employed to determinate the insoluble content [11]. In particular, middle infrared spectroscopy (MIR)
has been largely applied [1,1117], which offers several advantages
for this type of application, such as nondestructive nature.
Recently, much attention has been paid to dielectric and electrochemical impedance properties of industrial lubricants. Lvovich
and Schmiechowski [18] have discussed the relationship between
chemical composition of lubricants and their electrochemical
properties obtained by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The non-linear impedance analysis of industrial
lubricants has also been performed by higher harmonic non-linear
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (NLEIS) [19]. EIS and
NLEIS are able to offer the opportunities to characterize, evaluate and provide insights into chemical composition, changes and
mechanisms of lubricants. Wang and Lee [20,21] have used a.c.
impedance technique to detect glycol contamination in engine oil.
And a new technique to detect minor antifreeze in engine oil by
measuring the changes of engine oil resistance was introduced too.
EIS has been used to estimate soot and diesel contamination in
engine oil simultaneously [22]. Oil condition sensors [2327] based
on dielectric constant and conductivity measurement of the engine
lubricating oil have been designed and fabricated. These sensors
can detect the relative variation of lubricant degradation. Wang
[28] has established a good correlation between TAN and this kind
of sensors output.

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

23

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of sample preparation device.

Dielectric and electrochemical impedance analysis methods are

relatively fast, simple, inexpensive and free from the difculties
associated with the current standard testing methods. Moreover,
dielectric and electrochemical properties are related with the
chemical composition and physical structures of engine lubricating
oil.
Dielectric spectroscopy (DS) is an analytical technique on
the interaction between dielectric material and electromagnetic
energy in the radio-frequency and microwave range, which is a
powerful structural detection technique for dielectric materials.
What DS studies is the dependence of materials dielectric properties on wavelength or frequency. The difference between DS
and EIS: the main interest of DS is on the intrinsic electric material properties. The complex permittivity *() or conductivity
*() spectra can be easily evaluated from Z*() with the help of
sample dimensions; the focus of EIS is mostly on the properties
of electrode/material interfaces and the materials under test are
often electrolytes or ion conductors. Petroleum products including
engine lubricating oil are all typical dielectric materials. So DS is
more suitable than EIS for engine lubricating oil analysis.
At present, DS technique enables researchers to make sound
contributions to contemporary problems in modern physics. DS
has been employed to quality sensing application of agricultural
product [29,30]. Our previous publications have investigated the
correlations between DS data and petroleum products composition and quality indexes by means of multivariate calibration,
which include classication of virgin engine lubricating oils by SAE
and source [31] and determination of clean gasoline octane numbers [32]. It is already proved that DS is a practical and effective
analysis method to obtain rich composition and structure information of complex mixture systems. Especially, with the help of
chemometrics multivariate calibration methods the direct relationships between DS data and quality properties can be established
efciently, which is more effective than the interpretation of EIS
results by means of complex equivalent circuit (EC) models. The

new analysis idea is explained in our previous publication too

[32].
The monitoring sensor for oil condition, especially for engine
lubricating oil should be easy to be cleaned and is able to extract
sufcient dielectric information. Interdigitated comb capacitor sensor is a good and practical selection, which has been applied for
oil analysis widely [27,3133]. So the measuring sensor for engine
lubricating oil in this article is a type of interdigitated comb capacitor sensor too.
In this article, DS is employed to examine the oxidative degradation of engine lubricating oil and to determine the Oxidation
Duration (OD), Total Acid Number (TAN) and Insoluble Content (IC)
properties. All the DS analysis results are discussed compared with
the Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
2. Experimental
2.1. Samples
All the samples were prepared with the device illustrated in
Fig. 1. The main function of the device is to oxidize the virgin samples under given oxidation conditions. The air ow generated by
the air pump and the copper wire catalyst are used to accelerate
the oxidization process.
According to the sample preparation device, three types of virgin engine lubricating oils were employed to produce three series
of samples with different degrees of degradation. The three virgin
engine lubricating oils are listed in Table 1.
For each series of samples, three types of properties including
Oxidation Duration (OD), Total Acid Number (TAN) and Insoluble
Content (IC) were recorded. OD values were recorded according
to sampling time. TAN and IC properties were respectively determined by TAN&TBN Analyzer and Insoluble Content Analyzer made
by Beijing China Invent Instrument Technology Ltd. Company. The
samples with three properties are shown in Tables 24.

Table 1
Information on three virgin engine lubricating oils.
Name

API

SAE

Company

Oxidation temperature ( C)

Set one
Set two
Set three

CD
CD-SE
SJ

15 W/40
50
15 W/40

KunLun (China)
Shell
Dalian Petroleum (China)

150
150
150

24

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

Table 2
Sample list generated by set one.
No.

Oxidation
during (min)

TAN
(mgKOH/g)

Insoluble content
(mg/g)

1-00
1-01
1-02
1-03
1-04
1-05
1-06
1-07
1-08
1-09
1-10
1-11

0
666
1501
2282
3075
3907
4756
5525
6375
7215
8033
8945

0.87
1.44
1.45
1.25
1.09
0.91
1.26
1.83
1.96
2.81
5.43
5.60

0.00
0.02
0.05
0.11
0.22
0.39
0.59
0.76
1.02
1.42
1.61
2.81

Table 3
Sample list generated by set two.
No.

Oxidation
during (min)

TAN
(mgKOH/g)

Insoluble content
(mg/g)

2-00
2-01
2-02
2-03
2-04
2-05
2-06
2-07
2-08
2-09
2-10
2-11
2-12
2-13
2-14
2-15
2-16

0
668
1485
1947
2667
3474
3618
4303
5079
5890
6733
7540
8342
9150
9869
10659
10963

1.10
1.00
0.85
0.76
0.72
0.79
0.70
0.94
0.79
1.01
1.18
1.09
1.36
1.27
0.99
1.23
1.13

0.02
0.17
0.35
0.58
0.68
0.81
1.13
1.32
1.54
1.87
2.21
2.68
3.24
3.48
3.87
4.08
4.29

Table 4
Sample list generated by set three.
No.

Oxidation
during (min)

TAN
(mgKOH/g)

Insoluble content
(mg/g)

3-00
3-01
3-02
3-03
3-04
3-05
3-06
3-07
3-08
3-09
3-10
3-11

0
772
1539
2328
3103
3445
3889
4072
4693
4971
6180
6660

1.34
0.94
0.55
0.43
0.56
0.74
0.68
1.00
0.60
1.10
1.11
1.05

0.00
0.05
0.14
0.26
0.37
0.43
0.58
0.65
1.02
1.28
3.60
7.56

2.2. FTIR apparatus and method

The FTIR instrument used in this work was Perkin Elmer 1725X
FT-IR spectrometer. A pair of well-polished KBr windows with
0.05 mm spacer creating a xed thin lm was used to acquire the
sample spectral data. During spectra measurement, a blank KBr
window spectra was collected and used as reference for sample
absorbance calculation. And then the sample was injected into the
blank KBr windows and the sample spectra were collected in the
range of 400 to 4000 cm1 at 4 cm1 resolution.

Fig. 2. Construction of sensor (a) schematic. Construction of sensor (b) photograph.

2.3. DS apparatus and method

A Dielectric Spectroscopy Analyzer for Petroleum (DSAP)
instrument made by Logistical Engineering University (LEU) was
employed to obtain the DS data of samples [31,32]. During DS
measurement, DSAP generates a. c. signals with desired frequencies and amplitudes which are applied to the samples under
test. Oil-composition-dependent current, which is similar to oilcondition-dependent current [23], is amplied, ltered, rectied,
converted into a d. c. voltage output and put into a 12 bits A/D
converter. So the values DSAP measures, called response signals,
are non-dimensional numbers and range from 0 to 4096. The main
parameters of DSAP are:
Waveform generated: 1. sine wave, 2. square wave, 3. triangle
wave.
Amplitude range: 10 V to +10 V.
Frequency range: 50 kHz16 MHz.
Temperature held: room temperature to 100 1 C.
Analysis time for one sample: about 3 min.
For this study, the sine waveform was selected; amplitudes were
4 V, 6 V, and 8 V; frequencies ranged from 50 kHz to 16 MHz and
frequency interval was 200 kHz; measurement temperatures were
40 1 C and 100 1 C.
A type of interdigitated comb capacitor sensor is fabricated and
employed in this article. The construction of the sensor is shown
in Fig. 2. The sensor is fabricated by printed circuit board (PCB)
technique.
The comb electrodes of the sensor are made of gold plated copper layers with 35 m height h. The copper nger width and spacing

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

25

Table 5
Peak area results of set one.
No.

S1

S2

S3

1-00
1-01
1-02
1-03
1-04
1-05
1-06
1-07
1-08
1-09
1-10
1-11

22.193
17.331
18.897
19.300
21.300
25.781
35.395
54.494
86.910
105.635
163.407
226.322

248.666
228.165
230.387
271.496
311.430
385.124
496.285
659.748
827.334
861.001
1167.237
1177.521

128.894
135.949
158.754
178.981
204.315
210.927
231.570
237.350
251.910
251.832
281.753
319.109

Table 6
Peak areas results of set two.
No.
2-00
2-01
2-02
2-03
2-04
2-05
2-06
2-07
2-08
2-09
2-10
2-11
2-12
2-13
2-14
2-15
2-16

S1
0.000
1.826
25.437
12.173
15.530
30.444
55.156
55.968
96.491
115.090
155.654
188.805
177.432
255.886
219.195
294.524
288.930

S2

S3

0.000
59.469
141.699
250.713
366.493
354.302
770.127
845.631
1146.900
1241.389
1352.902
1576.000
1389.495
1757.598
1468.520
1804.537
1711.515

248.462
208.507
236.571
273.927
280.454
266.599
303.360
317.584
307.353
380.286
392.526
420.048
378.501
494.598
423.234
525.734
551.087

Table 7
Peak areas results of set three.

Fig. 3. MIR spectra (a) set one. MIR spectra (b) set two. MIR spectra (c) set three.

are both 200um. The substrate of the sensor is a type of polytetrauoroethylene (Teon or PTFE or F4) whose dielectric constant
is 2.65.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. FTIR measurements
The MIR spectra of three series of samples are shown in Fig. 3.
The features in the three series of MIR spectra can be concluded that absorption bands centered at 1774 cm1 , 1713 cm1
and 1604 cm1 have the increasing trends as for absorption peak
intensity with the oxidation of the lubricating oil, which can be
explained as below:
The band feature centered at 1604 cm1 is due to the presence of saponied matter namely the initial oxidized products;
the band feature centered at 1713 cm1 is due to the presence
of carbonyl matter namely the intermediate oxidized products; the band feature centered at 1774 cm1 is due to the

No.

S1

S2

S3

3-00
3-01
3-02
3-03
3-04
3-05
3-06
3-07
3-08
3-09
3-10
3-11

9.043
13.187
12.904
16.111
20.263
22.478
27.519
26.342
38.515
44.867
97.849
124.464

170.631
197.463
222.201
281.947
291.729
368.709
422.198
366.387
455.334
500.059
838.778
908.065

131.805
132.567
110.505
109.664
98.938
116.547
127.855
115.760
133.959
148.623
237.963
401.006

presence of carboxyl matter namely the deeply oxidized products.

The absorption peak areas centered at 1774 cm1 , 1713 cm1
and 1604 cm1 for three series of samples, which were labeled by
S1, S2 and S3, respectively, were calculated by Thermo Scientic
Omnic software. The results are shown in Tables 57.
Nine multiple linear regression (MLR) models were, respectively, built to examine the relationships between the peak areas of
three series of samples and those three properties. In these models,
the predictor variables were peak areas and the response variables
were the three properties including OD, TAN and IC. The programs
were written in Matlab2008a and based on the regress function
in Matlab Statistics Toolbox. For each series of samples, three MLR
models were, respectively, constructed according to OD, TAN and
IC properties. During modeling leave-one-out full cross validation
was used to obtain the predicted results. The predicted correlation

26

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

Table 8
Predicted results based on MIR peak areas in correlation coefcient.
Property

Set one

Set two

Set three

Oxidation duration (min)

TAN (mgKOH/g)
Insoluble content (mg/g)

0.9905
0.8670
0.9385

0.9723
0.4918
0.9718

0.5796
0.1138
0.9131

coefcients between the predicted and the measured were listed

in Table 8.
As shown in Table 8, poor correlation coefcients for TAN were
obtained for three series. For set one and set two, the correlation
coefcients for OD and IC were relatively acceptable. For set three,
only IC property had good predicted results.
3.2. DS measurements
3.2.1. DS spectra features analysis
DS spectra of all three series of samples were collected and
shown in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4 we can conclude the main features
of DS spectra:
(1) The output DS spectra of DSAP have the shift trend to the lower
frequency range as oxidation duration increases, which is dif-

ferent from the peak area or height changing feature in MIR

spectra.
(2) Similar characteristics can be obtained under different testing
conditions. For example, at 40 C and 100 C testing temperatures and at 4Vpp, 6Vpp and 8Vpp excitation signal amplitudes
have almost the same testing results.
(3) Characteristic band peak features cannot be seen from the spectra data of DS, which is different from MIR and somewhat
similar with NIR. It can be difcult to assign specic features
to specic chemical components.

3.2.2. Quantitative calculation based on DS data

As DS is based on the interaction of an external eld with
the electric dipole moment of the sample, it is difcult to assign
specic features to specic chemical components of the sample like MIR analysis. However characteristic ingredient and
structure information of the sample can be obtained from DS
data. In order to nd out the relationship between DS data
and usual chemical and physical properties such as TAN and
insolubles, multivariate (multiple frequencies) calibration techniques (e.g. principal components analysis PCA, partial least
squares PLS, or articial neural networks) are often employed
[31,32].

Fig. 4. DS spectra (a) set one at 40 C. DS spectra (b) set one at 100 C. DS spectra (c) set two at 40 C. DS spectra (d) set two at 100 C. DS spectra (e) set three at 40 C. DS
spectra (f) set three at 100 C.

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

27

Table 9
Predictive results of sample set one based on DS data.
Property

Oxidation duration (min)

TAN (mgKOH/g)
Insoluble content (mg/g)

4Vpp

40 C
0.8560
0.9614
0.7884

6Vpp

8Vpp

100 C

40 C

100 C

40 C

100 C

0.9623
0.9923
0.9814

0.9263
0.9078
0.7330

0.9906
0.9926
0.9846

0.9889
0.9355
0.9151

0.9896
0.9963
0.9762

40 C

100 C

40 C

100 C

40 C

100 C

0.9905
0.9613
0.9944

0.9860
0.9764
0.9890

0.9763
0.9722
0.9473

0.9857
0.9806
0.9858

0.9954
0.9818
0.9954

0.9912
0.9785
0.9893

40 C

100 C

40 C

100 C

40 C

100 C

0.8571
0.6859
0.7976

0.9557
0.8652
0.9971

0.7853
0.5527
0.7605

0.9592
0.8516
0.9977

0.8101
0.6857
0.9534

0.9797
0.8826
0.9988

Table 10
Predictive results of sample set two based on DS data.
Property

Oxidation duration (min)

TAN (mgKOH/g)
Insoluble content (mg/g)

4Vpp

6Vpp

8Vpp

Table 11
Predictive results of sample set three based on DS data.
Property

Oxidation duration (min)

TAN (mgKOH/g)
Insoluble content (mg/g)

4Vpp

6Vpp

8Vpp

Table 12
Predicted results of all samples based on transformed DS data.
Property

Oxidation duration (min)

TAN (mgKOH/g)
Insoluble content (mg/g)

4Vpp

40 C
0.9038
0.9729
0.8371

6Vpp

8Vpp

100 C

40 C

100 C

40 C

100 C

0.9908
0.9911
0.9265

0.9734
0.9544
0.9031

0.9733
0.9933
0.9867

0.9524
0.9808
0.8635

0.9849
0.9986
0.9866

In this article partial least-squares (PLS) regression is used to

build the relationship between DS data and OD, TAN and IC properties. Three series of samples including set one, set two and set three
were respectively calculated by means of PLS. The target properties
are the OD, TAN and IC. As the number size of samples was relatively
few, leave-one-out method (full cross validation) was adopted. All
the programs were written and run in Matlab2008a. The calculation
results of correlation coefcients are listed in Tables 911.
The obvious conclusion can be obtained from Tables 911: more
accurate results can be obtained at 100 C than at 40 C while the
excitation amplitude has less inuence.
To summarize, the respective predicted results of three series
of samples indicated that DS data contained the compositional
and structural information, which accounted for the degradation
of engine lubricating oil. With PLS, TAN and IC properties can be
determined accurately based on the DS data.
The results above were obtained by respective calculations. So
one PLS model had to be constructed for each series of samples.
However, it is necessary and practical to build an overall PLS model
for different series of samples. During oxidation-induced degradation of lubricating oil, kinds of polar oxidation and nitration were
newly generated. The presence of these polar products can be seen
and interpreted from the changes (shifts) in DS spectra. Before construction of the overall PLS model, all three series of DS spectra
were transformed by subtracting the corresponding virgin sample
spectra, respectively. And the overall PLS multivariate calibration
model was built based on the transformed DS data. The transformed
spectra of the three series of samples were shown in Fig. 5.
According to the overall PLS model, the predicted results are
shown Table 12.

Fig. 5. The transformed spectra of three series (a) at 40 C. The transformed spectra
of three series (b) at 100 C.

28

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

DS, as the most effective method to extract the dielectric characteristic from the dielectric material, can be developed into an
efcient oil monitoring/analysis method. With the chemometrics
multivariate calibration such as PLS, qualitative and quantitative
analysis models can be built to monitor the degradation degrees
and to determine the main oil monitoring properties of engine
lubricating oil such as OD, TAN and IC. We believe that the remaining useful life of engine lubricating oil can be predicted based on
on-line or in situ DS data.

References

Fig. 6. Regression line for oxidation duration (a). Regression line for TAN (b). Regression line for insoluble content (c).

From results in Table 12, more accurate results can be obtained

by transformed DS data with the overall PLS model. And higher
operating at 100 C was more enhancing than at 40 C, which shown
that operating temperature was an important parameter to control.
In Fig. 6 shows the regression lines at 100 C operating temperature and 8Vpp amplitude.
From Fig. 6, good performance can be seen except for one samples predicted value of IC property as shown in Fig. 6(f). However,
we found that the sample which had the largest residual value
(1.965 mg/g) had the largest IC value (7.56 mg/g).

4. Conclusions
Based on the described engine lubricating oil oxidation device,
three series of samples with different oxidation degrees were produced. MIR and DS were employed to discover the degradation
characteristics of the samples. The oxidation features of the samples can be directly seen from both MIR and DS spectra. Based on
the characteristic peak areas calculated based on MIR spectra data,
OD and IC can get good predicted performance but TAN failed. We
have demonstrated that DS is suitable to monitor the degradation of
engine lubricating oil. OD, TAN and IC properties can be determined
simultaneously quantitatively and accurately.

[1] A. Borin, R.J. Poppi, Application of mid infrared spectroscopy and iPLS for the
quantication of contanminants in lubricating oil, Vib. Spectrosc. 37 (2005)
2732.
[2] Y. Liu, Z. Liu, S.Z. Wen, Y.B. Xie, Motion analysis on the particles in a magnetic
eld detector, Tribol. Int. 33 (2000) 837843.
[3] B.J. Roylance, Ferrography then and now, Tribol. Int. 38 (2005) 857862.
[4] H.L. Xiao, The development of ferrography in China-some personal refections,
Tribol. Int. 38 (2005) 904907.
[5] V. Macian, R. Payri, B. Tormos, L. Montoro, Applying analytical ferrography as a
technique to detect failures in diesel engine fuel injection systems, Wear 260
(2006) 562566.
[6] P. Yaroshchyk, R.J.S. Morrison, D. Body, B.L. Chadwick, Quantitative determination of wear metals in egine oils using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy:
a comparison between liquid jets and static liquids, Spectrochim. Acta Part B
60 (2005) 986992.
[7] P. Yaroshchyk, R.J.S. Morrison, D. Body, B.L. Chadwick, Quantitative determination of wear metals in engine oils using LIBS: the use of paper substrates and
a comparison between single-and double-pulse LIBS, Spectrochim. Acta Part B
60 (2005) 14821485.
[8] E.J. Ekanem, J.A. Lori, S.A. Thomas, The determination of wear metals in used
lubricating oils by ame atomic absorption spectrometry using sulphanilic acid
as ashing agent, Talanta 44 (1997) 21032121, 2108.
[9] Z. Yang, X. Hou, B.T. Jones, Determination of wear metals in engine oil by mild
acid digestion and energy dispersive X-ray uorescence spectrometry using
solid phase extraction disks, Talanta 59 (2003) 673680.
[10] M. Pouzar, T. Cernohorsky, A. Krejcova, Determination of metals in lubricating
oils by X-ray uorescence spectrometry, Talanta 54 (2001) 829835.
[11] M. Knochen, A. Sixto, G. Pignalosa, S. Domenech, S. Garrigues, M. de la Guardia,
Determination of insolubles in diesel lubricating oil by FIA-visible spectrometry, Talanta 64 (2004) 13591363.
[12] ASTM E-2412-0, Standard Practice for Condition Monitoring of Used Lubricants by Trend Analysis Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometry.
Standard Volume.03.06 (2005).
[13] A.R. Caneca, M. Fernanda Pimentel, Roberto Kawakami Harrop Galvao, C.E.
da Matta, F.R. de Carvalho, I.M. Raimundo@@Jr., C. Pasquini, J.J.R. Rohwedder,
Assessment of infrared spectroscopy and multivariate techniques for monitoring the service condition of diesel-engine lubricating oils, Talanta 70 (2006)
344352.
[14] H.F. Yuan, X.L. Chu, H.R. Li, Y.P. Xu, Determination of multi-properties of residual
oils using mid-infrared attenuated total reection spectroscopy, Fuel 85 (2006)
17201728.
[15] M.A. Al-Ghouti, L. Al-Atoum, Virgin and recycled engine oil differentiation: a
spectroscopic study, J. Environ. Manage. 90 (2009) 187195.
[16] N. Gracia, S. Thomas, P. Bazin, L. Duponchel, F. Thibault-Starzyk, O. Lerasle,
Combination of mid-infrared spectroscopy and chemometric factorization
tools to study the oxidation of lubricating base oils, Catal. Today 155 (2009)
255260.
[17] Y. Felkel, N. Dorr, F. Glatz, K. Varmuza, Determination of the total acid number
(TAN) of used gas engine oils by IR and chemometrics applying a combined strategy for variable selection, Chemom. Intell. Lab. Syst. 101 (2010)
1422.
[18] V.F. Lvovich, M.F. Smiechowski, Impedance characterization of industrial lubricants, Electrochim. Acta 51 (2006) 14871496.
[19] V.F. Lvovich, M.F. Smiechowski, Non-linear impedance analysis of industrial
lubricants, Electrochim. Acta 53 (2008) 73757385.
[20] S.S. Wang, H.-S. Lee, The application of a.c. impedance technique for
detecting glycol contamination in engine oil, Sens. Actuators B 40 (1997)
193197.
[21] S.S. Wang, Y. Lin, A new technique for detecting antifreeze in engine oil during
early stage of leakage, Sens. Actuators B 96 (2003) 157164.
[22] H.P. Christian Ulrich, H. Sundgren, F. Bjorefors, C. Krantz-Rulcker, Simultaneous
estimation of soot and diesel contamination in engine oil using electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy, Sens. Actuators B 127 (2007) 613618.
[23] H.-S. Lee, S.S. Wang, In situ monitoring of high-temperature degraded engine
oil condition with microsensors, Sens. Actuators B 20 (1994) 4954.
[24] S.S. Wang, H.-S. Lee, D.J. Smolenski, The development of in-situ electrochemical
oil condition sensors, Sens. Actuators B 17 (1994) 179185.
[25] S.S. Wang, H.-S. Lee, An electrochemical sensor for distinguishing two-strokeengine oils, Sens. Actuators B 40 (1997) 199203.

L. Guan et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 168 (2011) 2229

[26] S. Wang, Road tests of oil condition sensor and sensing technique, Sens. Actuators B: Chem. 73 (2001) 106111.
[27] S. Raadnui, S. Kleesuwan, Low-cost condition monitoring sensor for used oil
analysis, Wear 259 (2005) 15021506.
[28] S.S. Wang, Engine oil condition sensor: method for establishing correlation with
total acid number, Sens. Actuators B 86 (2002) 122126.
[29] S.O. Nelson, Dielectric spectroscopy for agricultural applications, Proc. IEEE
Instr. Meas. Technol. Conf. 1 (2004) 752754.
[30] S.O. Nelson, Dielectric spectroscopy of fresh fruits and vegetables, Proc. IEEE
Instr. Meas. Technol. Conf. 1 (2005) 360364.
[31] L. Guan, Feng.F X.L., G. Xiong, Engine lubricating oil classication by SAE
grade and source based on dielectric spectroscopy data, Chim. Acta 628 (2008)
117120.
[32] L. Guan, X.L. Feng, Z.C. Li, G.M. Lin, Determination of octane numbers for clean gasoline using dielectric spectroscopy, Fuel 88 (2009)
14531459.
[33] V.F. Lvovich, C.C. Liu, M.F. Smiechowski, Optimaization and fabrication of planar
interdigitated impedance sensors for highly resistive non-aqueous industrial
uids, Sens. Actuators B 119 (2006) 490496.

29

Biographies
L. Guan Ph.D. (Engineering), Logistical Engineering University (LEU), Chongqing,
China, 2009. He is now the lecturer of LEU. Testing and analysis technologies, development of analytical instruments for fuel and lubricating oil especially based on
dielectric spectroscopy technology are the current study topics.
X.L. Feng Ph.D. (Engineering), Logistical Engineering University (LEU), Chongqing,
China, 2004. He is now the professor of LEU. Chemometrics, testing and analysis
technologies and development of analytical instruments for fuel and lubricating oil
are the current elds of interest. Near infrared spectroscopy and dielectric spectroscopy is his hot study topics nowadays.
G. Xiong Master, Logistical Engineering University (LEU), Chongqing, China, 2003.
He is now the engineer of LEU. Electronics engineering and development of analysis
instrument is his major elds of interest.
J.A. Xie Master, Logistical Engineering University (LEU), Chongqing, China, 2008.
Chemometrics is his current study eld of interest.