Filter replacement lifetime prediction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9797812-B2
Application number	US-201313847255-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2013
Priority date	Mar 19, 2013
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for predicting a filter lifetime include building a filter effectiveness history based on contaminant sensor information associated with a filter; determining a rate of filter consumption with a processor based on the filter effectiveness history; and determining a remaining filter lifetime based on the determined rate of filter consumption. Methods and systems for increasing filter economy include measuring contaminants in an internal and an external environment; determining a cost of a corrosion rate increase if unfiltered external air intake is increased for cooling; determining a cost of increased air pressure to filter external air; and if the cost of filtering external air exceeds the cost of the corrosion rate increase, increasing an intake of unfiltered external air.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling air filtration in an enclosure having a filtered air intake and an unfiltered air intake, comprising:
measuring contaminants in an internal and an external environment using respective internal and external contaminant sensors;
determining an increase in a corrosion rate for one or more objects in the enclosure if unfiltered external air intake is increased for cooling based on the measured contaminants in the internal and external environments, comprising calculating a corrosion rate of the external environment as:
CR out ≈(H 2 S) a (SO 2 ) b (NO 2 ) c e d·RH e E a /k B T

 where H 2 S, SO 2 , and NO 2 are the gaseous contaminants hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxide in parts per billion, RH is the relative humidity, E a is the activation energy for a given metal, k B is the Boltzmann constant, T is temperature, and the scaling variables a, b, c, and d are determined by fitting historical corrosion data versus variation of the gaseous pollutant concentration in a controlled or normal environment;
determining an air pressure needed to filter external air using a filter in the filtered air intake;
controlling an intake of unfiltered external air by bypassing the filter in the filtered air intake, based on the corrosion rate increase and the air pressure needed to filter external air;
updating a predicted filter lifetime based on the intake of unfiltered external air, comprising:
building a filter effectiveness history based on contaminant sensor information associated with a filter;
determining a rate of filter consumption with a processor based on the filter effectiveness history; and
determining a remaining filter lifetime based on the determined rate of filter consumption; and

providing a warning if the contaminant sensor information associated with the filter exceeds an instantaneous failure threshold or if the determined remaining filter lifetime falls below a filter lifetime threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rate of filter consumption characterizes a change over time in a degree of unfiltered contamination.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remaining filter lifetime is a time remaining until the degree of unfiltered contamination is predicted to exceed a threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the instantaneous failure threshold represents a physical failure of the filter.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contaminant sensor information includes sensor information for gaseous and particulate contaminants.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising determining whether external conditions are within guideline levels for temperature, relative humidity, and corrosion rate.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising decreasing the intake of unfiltered external air if external conditions fall outside of guideline levels.

8. A computer readable storage medium comprising a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform the steps of claim 1 .

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring contaminants comprises measuring a contaminant concentration.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the rate of filter consumption comprises performing a time series analysis on the filter effectiveness history.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein performing a time series analysis comprises applying a Kalman filter model to predict future filter consumption values.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Hamann Hendrik F
• Klein Levente I
• Manzer Dennis G
• Marianno Fernando J

Classifications

• B01D46/0086 Primary

  Filter condition indicators · CPC title

• G01N17/04

  Corrosion probes · CPC title

• G01L9/00

  Measuring steady of quasi-steady pressure of fluid or fluent solid material by electric or magnetic pressure-sensitive elements {(G01L11/004 takes precedence)}; Transmitting or indicating the displacement of mechanical pressure-sensitive elements, used to measure the steady or quasi-steady pressure of a fluid or fluent solid material, by electric or magnetic means (measuring differences of two or more pressure values G01L13/00; measuring two or more pressure values simultaneously G01L15/00) · CPC title

• G01N33/0004

  Gaseous mixtures, e.g. polluted air · CPC title

• B01D46/429

  Means for wireless communication · CPC title