Measuring friction at an interface using ultrasonic response

Friction between sliding surfaces is a fundamental phenomenon prevalent in many aspects of engineering. There are many sliding contact tribometers that measure friction force in a laboratory environment. However, the transfer of laboratory data to real machine elements is unreliable. Results depend on the specimen configuration, surface condition and environment. In this work, a method has been developed that uses the nonlinear response of a high-power ultrasonic wave to deduce friction coefficient in situ at an interface. When the high-power shear wave strikes a frictional interface, relative slip can occur. It imposes a nonlinear response and causes generation of higher-order odd frequency components in received ultrasonic signals. The amplitude of the harmonics depends on contact stress and local friction coefficient. This nonlinear ultrasonic response has been investigated both numerically and experimentally. A simple one-dimensional model has been used to predict nonlinearity generation. This model has been compared with experiments conducted on aluminium rough surfaces pressed together under increasing loads. Two strategies have been used to estimate the friction coefficient by correlating experimental and numerical third-order nonlinearity. It has proved possible to determine the friction coefficient in situ at the interface; values in the range of 0.22 to 0.61 were measured for different surface configurations.