Ultrasonic measurement of lubricant film thickness in sliding bearings with thin liners

When conducting ultrasonic measurements of the lubricant film thickness in sliding bearings with thin liners, the ultrasonic pulse reflected from the bearing liner–lubricant film interface will superimpose on the pulse reflected from the bearing substrate–liner interface. The thickness information of the lubricant film is contained in the reflected pulse from the liner–lubricant film interface. In this case, the film thickness could not be obtained directly from the superimposed reflected signals. The thin liner indicates that the thickness of the bearing liner is less than half the ultrasonic pulse width. Based on the spectrum analysis method of superimposed signals, a new method is proposed to measure the lubricant film thickness in sliding bearings with thin liners. The frequency-domain amplitude ratio between the echo component containing thickness information and the steady echo component from the bearing substrate–liner interface is extracted from the superimposed signal. The reflection coefficient of the liner–lubricant film interface is obtained by this amplitude ratio to determine the film thickness. The lubricant films of different thicknesses in a thin-liner thrust pad were measured in a high-precision experimental apparatus. The measurement results were compared with the known film thickness set by the experimental apparatus. In the thinner film region, the measurement results agreed well with the set film thickness. In the thicker film region, the mean values of the multiple measurement results represented the film thickness. The experimental results show that the method can be used to measure the lubricant film thickness in sliding bearings with thin liners.