Investigation of the effect of engine lubricant oil on remote temperature sensing using thermographic phosphors

Phosphor thermometry, a remote temperature sensing technique, is widely implemented to measure the temperature of different combustion engines components. The presence of engine lubricant can influence the behavior of the applied sensor materials, known as thermographic phosphors, and thus leading to erroneous temperature measurements. The effect of two engine lubricants on decay times originating from six different thermographic phosphors was investigated. The decay time of each thermographic phosphor was investigated as a function of lubricant/phosphor mass ratio. Tests were conducted at temperatures around 293 K and 376 K for both lubricants. The investigations revealed that ZnO:Zn and ZnS:Ag are the only ones that exhibit a change of the decay time as function of the lubricant/phosphor mass ratio. While the remaining thermographic phosphors, namely BaMg2Al16O27:Eu (BAM), Al2O3-coated BaMg2Al16O27:Eu, La2O2S:Eu, Mg3F2GeO4:Mn, displayed no sensitivity of their characteristic decay time on to the presence of lubricant on the porous coating. Biases in the calculated temperature are to be expected if the utilized thermographic phosphor displays decay time sensitivity to the existence of the engine lubricant within the sensor. Such distortions are concealed and can occur undetected leading to false temperature readings for the probed engine component.