Identification of lubricant contamination by biodiesel using vibration analysis and neural network

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide information on lubricant contamination by biodiesel using vibration and neural network.Design/methodology/approach – The possible contamination of lubricants is verified by analyzing the vibration and neural network of a bench test under determinated conditions.Findings – Results have shown that classical signal analysis methods could not reveal any correlation between the signal and the presence of contamination, or contamination grade. On other hand, the use of probabilistic neural network (PNN) was very successful in the identification and classification of contamination and its grade.Research limitations/implications – This study was done for some specific kinds of biodiesel. Other types of biodiesel could be analyzed.Practical implications – Contamination information is presented in the vibration signal, even if it is not evident by classical vibration analysis. In addition, the use of PNN gives a relatively simple and easy‐to‐use detection tool with ...