• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.686-689
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• 2003

Many technologies are applied to the measurement of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) film thickness. In particular, optical in-situ interferometric method has many advantages in making the actual contact behaviors realized with the experimental apparatus. Careful selection of incident lights greatly enhances the fringe resolution up to nanometer scale by using image processing technology. In this work, it is found that dichromatic incident light can provide much finer resolution of EHL film thickness than monochromatic incident light, because it has much more variables of color components to be discriminated among the wavelengths of colors according the variations of EHL film thickness. Some simulated interferometric images are shown how the film thickness is resolutionized in nanometer scale

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1704-1713
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• 2003

Point contact film thickness in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) is analyzed by image processing method for the images from an optical interferometer with monochromatic incident light. Interference between the reflected lights both on half mirror Cr coating of glass disk and on super finished ball makes circular fringes depending on the contact conditions such as sliding velocity, applied load, viscosity-pressure characteristics and viscosity of lubricant under ambient pressure. In this situation the film thickness is regarded as the difference of optical paths between those reflected lights, which make dark and bright fringes with monochromatic incident light. The film thickness is computed by numbering the dark and bright fringe orders and the intensity (gray scale image) in each fringe regime is mapped to the corresponding film thickness. In this work, we developed a measuring technique for EHL film thickness by dividing the image patterns into two typical types under the condition of monochromatic incident light. During the image processing, the captured image is converted into digitally formatted data over the contact area without any loss of the image information of interferogram and it is also interpreted with consistency regardless of the observer's experimental experience. It is expected that the developed image processing method will provide a valuable basis to develop the image processing technique for color fringes, which is generally used for the measurement of relatively thin films in higher resolution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.103-113
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• 1999

Point contact film thickness in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) is analyzed by the image processing method for the monochromatic incident light. Interference between the reflected lights both on Cr coating of glass disk and on super finished ball makes circular fringes, which are regarded as film thickness together with numbering of fringe order. In this study, we developed technology to measure the film thickness by analyzing dark and bright intensity waves which results from monochrome green light. Two typical fringe patterns only with intensity values 3re examined for the measurement of point contact EHL film thickness. We expect that this technology will give valuable clue to improve color image processing analysis for high resolution of EHL film thickness with white incident light.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.317-323
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• 2000

The film thickness and shape of elastohydrodynamic lubrication is measured by optical interferometer, which is the most precise method for EHL film measurement. However, the interpretation of the image pattern from optical viscometer is not simple for two-dimensional shape. A newly developed method of image processing makes it possible to evaluate the film thickness and shape in every point of contact region with two dimensional aspects. In this study, we captured the film shape of EHL film by the monochromatic incident light and analyzed the film thickness with the image processing method, which uses phase shift method. From the values of intensity in fringes, the qualitative feature of film thickness in the contact area are obtained by using Zernike polynomial

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.147-155
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• 1999

The film thickness and shape of elastohydrodynamic lubrication is measured by optical interferometer, which is the most precise method for EHL film measurement. However the interpretation of the image pattern from optical viscometer is not easy for two-dimensional shape. A newly developed method of image processing makes it possible to evaluate the film thickness and shape in every point of contact region with two dimensional aspects. In this study, we captured film shape of EHL film from the monochromatic incident light with the Image processing method, which uses phase shift method, and obtained the image analysis method for gray level image in order to qualitatively evaluate film shapes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.283-288
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• 2004

The measurement of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness is very crucial technique both for the verification of lubrication media characteristics and for the clearance design in many precision components such as MEMS, precision bearings and other slideways. Many technologies are applied to the measurement of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness (i.e. elastohydrodynamic lubrication film thickness). In particular, in-situ optical interferometric method has many advantages in making the actual contact behaviors realized with the experimental apparatus. This measurement method also does the monitoring of the surface defects and fractures happening during the contact behavior, which are delicately influenced by the surface conditions such as load, velocity, lubricant media as well as surface roughness. Careful selection of incident lights greatly enhances the fringe resolutions up to $\~1.0$ nanometer scale with digital image processing technology. In this work, it is found that coaxial aligning trichromatic incident light filtering system developed by the author can provide much finer resolution of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness than monochromatic or dichromatic incident lights, because it has much more spectrums of color components to be discriminated according the variations of film thickness. For the measured interferometric images of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness it is shown how the film thickness is finely digitalized and measured in nanometer scale with digital image processing technology and space layer method. The developed measurement system can make it possible to visualize the contact deformations and possible fractures of contacting surface under the repeated loading condition.