Method for Performance Evaluation of Soot Removal Devices

Removal of soot from oil in diesel engine applications has been a topic of interest for engine manufacturers for many years. In the past three decades, centrifugal bypass filters have been used for this purpose. Other bypass filtration devices have been introduced in the past few years for the same purpose. In order to evaluate the performance of these devices, a method has been developed to help measure the difference between various filtration systems. This method has been used for the past five years and correlated with on-engine and field testing. The results show significant accuracy of this test method, which can then be used to help customers of such devices make sound decisions on which device to use for a given application. This method can also be used to perform comparative testing of various soot removal devices without the need to use engine test cell time and resources. Various test procedures used in the industry, benefits and drawbacks of each and future development opportunities will be discussed in this paper.