A measurement system for thin elastohydrodynamic lubrication films

Abstract

An elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) film measurement system using multi-beam interferometry is introduced in this paper. The measurement principle and the instrumentation are discussed. A simple and efficient method is suggested to obtain the fringe order of measured points. It is demonstrated that the presented measurement system can provide continuous measurement of lubricating films from nano to micro scales at a nano-level resolution, and can be used to investigate ultra-thin EHL films and tiny variations in EHL films.