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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mech. Eng.
Sec. Tribology
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmech.2024.1489311
This article is part of the Research Topic Visualization Techniques in Tribology View all 13 articles

Application of the Electrical Impedance Method to Steel/Steel EHD Point Contacts

Provisionally accepted
Taisuke Maruyama Taisuke Maruyama 1,2*Daichi Kosugi Daichi Kosugi 1,2Shunsuke Iwase Shunsuke Iwase 1,2Masayuki Maeda Masayuki Maeda 1,2Ken Nakano Ken Nakano 3Satoshi Momozono Satoshi Momozono 2
  • 1 NSK Ltd., Fujisawa, Japan
  • 2 Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Tōkyō, Japan
  • 3 Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The authors have previously developed the electrical impedance method which simultaneously measure the thickness and breakdown ratio of oil films in EHD (elastohydrodynamic) contacts. Furthermore, using a ball-on-disc-type apparatus, the authors have also confirmed that the accuracy of oil film measurement by the developed method is comparable to that of optical interferometry (i.e., glass-steel contacts). In this study, we discussed the experimental results obtained by applying the electrical impedance method to steel-steel contacts using a steel disc instead of a glass disc. It was found that under the mixed lubrication regime where wear occurs, the oil film thickness obtained by this method is calculated to be significantly thicker than the theoretical value. This can be attributed to the increase in the apparent dielectric constant of the lubricant due to wear particles in the lubricant.

    Keywords: Electrical impedance method, Condition monitoring, Oil film thickness, Breakdown ratio, Elastohydrodynamic lubrication, wear, Steel/steel contact

    Received: 31 Aug 2024; Accepted: 22 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maruyama, Kosugi, Iwase, Maeda, Nakano and Momozono. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Taisuke Maruyama, NSK Ltd., Fujisawa, Japan

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