Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : The Ninth International Conference on Modeling and Diagnostics for Advanced Engine Systems (COMODIA 2017)
Date : July 25, 2017 - July 28, 2017
In this study, a new method for visualization of oil film flow is proposed and the validity of this method is experimentally confirmed. The proposed method is to visualize the oil film by dissolving a photochromic dye in lubricating oil and coloring with UV rays. This paper explains the basic study of photochromic reaction and the application to flow visualization. Firstly, we quantified the color density of colored solution by applying the absorbance calculated from images before and after coloring. As a result, it was confirmed that the color density was quantified and also oil film thickness can be measured from the absorbance. Secondly, the characteristics of coloring and fading reaction were examined. Consequently, it was confirmed that the increasing energy density of UV rays is effective in improving color density and the optimal energy density of UV rays can be acquired from the model formula of coloring reaction. We also measured the color fading reaction under the different temperature conditions and confirmed the temperature dependence of the solution of Spiropyran and Ester-based oil from an Arrhenius plot. Finally, flow visualization was tried in the complex shape flow channel of approximately ten micrometers in thickness. The test oil flowing through this channel was colored with a focused third harmonic of YAG laser. The distributions of flow velocity and supplied oil to the channel were visualized with this method and confirmed the validity of proposed method.
