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High-accuracy ultrasonic method for in-situ monitoring of oil film thickness in a thrust bearing.

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Title: High-accuracy ultrasonic method for in-situ monitoring of oil film thickness in a thrust bearing.
Authors: Jia, Yaping1 (AUTHOR), Dou, Pan1 (AUTHOR), Zheng, Peng1 (AUTHOR), Wu, Tonghai1,2 (AUTHOR) tonghai.wu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn, Yang, Peiping3 (AUTHOR), Yu, Min4 (AUTHOR), Reddyhoff, Tom4 (AUTHOR)
Source: Mechanical Systems & Signal Processing. Nov2022, Vol. 180, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p.
Subjects: Thrust bearings, Ultrasonics, Ultrasonic effects, Loading & unloading, Thickness measurement
Abstract: • A theoretical investigation to clarify the thermal effect on ultrasonic signals. • Real-time compensation of amplitude attenuation and phase increment. • In-situ monitoring of oil film thickness in a tilting-pad thrust bearing. The ultrasonic method has been widely applied to measure the oil film thickness – a critical variable that reflects lubrication conditions. However, due to the thermal dependence of ultrasonic signals, significant deviations in film thickness measurements are introduced, hindering the in-situ application of the ultrasonic technique. To address this issue, a real-time temperature compensation method that can accurately obtain the frequency domain information of the reference signal is proposed. Specifically, the reflection from the substrate-coating interface compensates for the thermal effect on the phase increment and amplitude attenuation – this is noted as "self-calibration". An extra experimental test with a substrate-coating-air structure is performed to calibrate the thermal effect on the coating-induced phase shift – this part is denoted as "pre-calibration". The combination of "self-calibration" and "pre-calibration" enables the overall temperature compensation strategy. After the effectiveness validation with a temperature-controlled experiment, the proposed method is implemented in a thrust bearing in a heavy-duty hydropower generator with full running conditions, including loading and unloading, normal speed and shut-down. The largely ranged oil film thickness (3–330 μm) is ultrasonically measured and compared with the theoretical value, showing a higher measurement accuracy than the eddy current method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Engineering Source
Description
Abstract:• A theoretical investigation to clarify the thermal effect on ultrasonic signals. • Real-time compensation of amplitude attenuation and phase increment. • In-situ monitoring of oil film thickness in a tilting-pad thrust bearing. The ultrasonic method has been widely applied to measure the oil film thickness – a critical variable that reflects lubrication conditions. However, due to the thermal dependence of ultrasonic signals, significant deviations in film thickness measurements are introduced, hindering the in-situ application of the ultrasonic technique. To address this issue, a real-time temperature compensation method that can accurately obtain the frequency domain information of the reference signal is proposed. Specifically, the reflection from the substrate-coating interface compensates for the thermal effect on the phase increment and amplitude attenuation – this is noted as "self-calibration". An extra experimental test with a substrate-coating-air structure is performed to calibrate the thermal effect on the coating-induced phase shift – this part is denoted as "pre-calibration". The combination of "self-calibration" and "pre-calibration" enables the overall temperature compensation strategy. After the effectiveness validation with a temperature-controlled experiment, the proposed method is implemented in a thrust bearing in a heavy-duty hydropower generator with full running conditions, including loading and unloading, normal speed and shut-down. The largely ranged oil film thickness (3–330 μm) is ultrasonically measured and compared with the theoretical value, showing a higher measurement accuracy than the eddy current method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:08883270
DOI:10.1016/j.ymssp.2022.109453