Real-time Detection of Oil Viscosity Using Coplanar Capacitive Sensors

Abstract

Measurement of oil's internal flow resistance, usually known as viscosity, is essential in several domains such as automotive and oil production. Although different types of viscometers are available in the market, several limitations affect their usability in real-time applications; mainly the requirement for calibration. In this paper, we introduce a new method for detecting the oil viscosity based on coplanar capacitive sensors. This method relies on analyzing the changes in the measured capacitance while the sensor is installed in a dynamic scheme; moving vertically in and out of an oil sample. Due to this new working principle, the proposed sensing system has several advantages over the commercially-available sensors in terms of low manufacturing cost, simplicity of operation, and online calibration capability.