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Online Measurement of Lubricating Film Thickness in Slider-on-Disc Contact Based on Dichromatic Optical Interferometry

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Abstract

The present study mainly focuses on a new approach to achieve online measurement of lubricating film thickness in a slider-on-disc contact. The inclination of the slider is obtained by Fourier transform and frequency estimation of the interferogram of the sliding contact. An algorithm that is based on optical flow calculation and dynamic time warping technique is presented for tracking a characteristic point with constant film thickness on the 1-D modulated intensity curve. Online film thickness measurement can thus be achieved. This approach has been validated with known gap thickness of a stationary wedge. In addition, transient film thickness under unsteady speeds was measured with the present approach and some lubrication behaviours have been revealed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks to the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. CityU11269216), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51775286) and Qingdao Innovation Foundation (Project No. 13-CX-37) for the financial supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, 266520, People’s Republic of China

    Qinghua Bai, Feng Guo & Peigang Jiang

  2. Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

    Qinghua Bai & Pat Lam Wong

Authors
  1. Qinghua Bai
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  2. Feng Guo
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  3. Pat Lam Wong
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  4. Peigang Jiang
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Correspondence to Feng Guo.

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Bai, Q., Guo, F., Wong, P.L. et al. Online Measurement of Lubricating Film Thickness in Slider-on-Disc Contact Based on Dichromatic Optical Interferometry. Tribol Lett 65, 145 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-017-0928-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-017-0928-3

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