Maintenance Alert: Portable Kit Analyzes Fluids to Gauge Health of Military Vehicles

Similar to how blood can be used to assess the overall health of a person, analyzing liquids such as hydraulic lubricants and fuel can ascertain the working condition of military equipment onboard ships, aircraft or vehicles.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) — in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Naval Sea Systems Command and AMETEK Spectro Scientific — has sponsored the development of an integrated tool to make such an analysis faster, easier and mobile. It’s called the Portable Fluid Analyzer Plus (PFA+).

“This is an exciting tool that will help maintain the readiness of our forward-deployed and expeditionary forces,” said Capt. Steven Tarr III, the military deputy in ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons Department. “Having the ability to quickly perform critical analysis on the health of equipment is absolutely vital to mission success.”

An unglamorous but essential aspect of military operations is attending to vehicle maintenance and repair by checking fluids for contaminants or debris that could result in breakdown, a potentially deadly setback in a combat situation.

“When you operate a machine, it starts breaking down and releasing particles into the fluid,” said Peter DeSalva, a subject matter expert and support contractor in ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons Department. “That’s what we look at with PFA+, because the different stages of breakdown are indicated by the shape, size and number of particles.”

Dr. John Tucker, an NRL physicist, said, “PFA+ is a valuable tool because it can let you know about contaminants that could jam up vehicle parts, especially high-pressure hydraulic systems. You want to understand the condition of your machinery. Is it working normally? Is it starting to fail or is it close to failing? You want to know this before going out on a mission.”

Currently, Sailors and Marines have to draw fluid samples from vehicles, package them and send them to offsite laboratories for examination. It could be weeks or even months before a detailed analysis is received. PFA+ addresses this by serving as a single-step-operation laboratory in a pelican case operated by the Sailors and Marines, which can analyze fluid samples and evaluate them in real time.

PFA+ consists of specialized components that can examine particles suspended in a fluid sample; take detailed images; and, with specially designed software, measure particle size and wear type to gauge how long until possible vehicle failure. The system also looks at a range of fluid properties — including oil viscosity, which is how easily oil flows at a certain temperature — to ensure gears are being lubricated properly.

Both Tucker and DeSalva envision multiple scenarios in which PFA+ could be valuable, including when vehicles held within a garrison or depot are due for regularly scheduled inspection.

“Let’s say you have a vehicle you don’t use much, but you still have to change the fluids every few months, even if there’s not much mileage on them,” said Tucker. “PFA+ allows you to take a sample, study it and say the fluid properties are still good. You don’t need to change them out.

“The idea is to get away from scheduled maintenance to conditions-based maintenance and to prognostics,” he continued, “where you know how that vehicle is at that point in time. You can say the vehicle should be good for a certain length of time. This could save time and money.”

PFA+ is also ideal for sampling possible fuel sources in an operational environment and determining if an unknown liquid is fuel, whether it can be used in a vehicle or to verify the quality of fuel received from a local vendor while operating in austere environments. The tool also enables warfighters to see water in fuel or fluids, which does bad things to ferrous materials, such as causing rust.

The mission of PFA+, which could be introduced into the fleet and force in the next couple of years, aligns with the emerging naval concept known as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), which involves deploying small but highly mobile units to isolated locations. EABO has the potential of quickly getting forces into a strategically vital area, and potentially in an adversary’s weapons engagement zone, in response to an evolving threat when no other U.S. military assets are available.

This further aligns with the Naval S&T Strategy released in April by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. The strategy serves as sailing directions for strengthening collaboration with industry, academia, and partners and allies, to cultivate groundbreaking scientific research and accelerate delivery of technological innovation to the Navy and Marine Corps. It can be viewed at https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Strategic-Library/.

Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.