An approach for accurate measurement of lubricant film thickness based on fiber-optical displacement

The lubricant film extensively occurs in the hydrodynamic slide bearings applied in a lot of large or highspeed rotary machinery, and its property directly influence the work conditions of these bearings and its related machinery, so it is an important research field all the time how to achieve the accurate measurement of the lubricant film. In this paper, we only focus on the accurate measurement of lubricant film thickness. After introducing the fundamental principle of the fiber-optical displacement sensor, a new measurement system based on the sensor is put forward for achieving the accurate measurement of lubricant film thickness. At last, some valuable experimental results are also collected to verify the measurement schedule proposed in this paper is a good approach, which can successfully determine the lubricating film states.