This paper introduces a kind of on-line wear condition monitoring system fo
r marine diesel engines. The system consists of three functions i.e. partic
le detecting, lubricant quality detecting and shaft torque moment and insta
ntaneous rotation velocity detecting. The system detects wear particles in
lubricant with an on-line ferrograph so as to judge wear condition of tribe
-pairs of the diesel engine. A vertical detector fixed is used for environm
ent of the marine diesel engine in this system, and the rule of distributio
n of particles in the vertical detector fixed and the horizontal detector f
ixed are alike in substance. The system detects the relative variation of l
ubricant quality by the grid capacitance sensors in an on-line way, which c
onsists of an upper capacitance and a lower capacitance and can distinguish
the relative variation of the dielectric constant of lubricant caused by p
ollutants such as water, metal particles etc. The system detects the shaft
torque moment and the instantaneous rotation velocity of the diesel engine
with photoelectric sensors, and corresponds the wear condition with the pow
er condition by the change of instantaneous rotation velocity due to burnin
g pressure change, which is helpful to judge cylinder wear. (C) 2000 Publis
hed by Elsevier Science Ltd.