塑料瓦推力轴承的膜厚和形变分布是研究塑料瓦轴承在流体动压和表面弹性变形耦合作用下润滑机理的重要参数。润滑膜所处空间的密闭性、形变尺度的微小性等特点制约了膜厚分布和形变分布检测的实施与发展，本项目研究发展一种能够同步实时获取塑料瓦推力轴承运行过程中膜厚和形变的超声检测方法：通过超声波在润滑层上反射信号的频域幅值信息获得膜厚特征；通过超声波在青铜丝网层和塑料组成的复合层中的飞行时间信息获得形变特征。利用多测点的膜厚和形变值通过插值拟合获得塑料瓦的膜厚和形变分布。主要研究内容有：1）研究适合复杂多层结构反射信号重叠时的膜厚超声检测方法；2）研究适合弹性模量随压力变化时的塑料瓦形变超声检测方法；3）在塑料瓦推力轴承实验台上进行实验检测，通过改变轴承运行工况参数，获得不同工况下膜厚和形变的分布信息，并与理论仿真结果进行对比分析。研究成果对塑料瓦轴承的润滑理论研究和结构优化设计均具有重要意义。

Lubrication film thickness and deformation distribution are key parameters for lubrication mechanism reasearch in polymer thrust bearings under the condition of coupling oil film pressure to surface elastic deformation. However, an effective method for the detection of the two characteristics has yet to be achieved. In this project, an ultrasonic method would be studied which would be able to synchromously measure the lubrication film thickness and deformation in real time: the lubrication film thickness would be obtained based on the amplitude information of the ultrasonic echo reflected from the lubrication layer, and the deformation would be obtained based on the change of the Time of Flight when the ultrsound pass through the composite layer constituted by the copper and the polymer. The distribution of the lubrication film thickness and deformation would then be obtained by fitting the results of multi measurement points. The main research contents includes: 1) Develop the ultrasonic method for lubrication film thickness measurement in complex structure with overlapped echoes;2）Develop the ultrasonic method for deformation measurement under the condition that the elastic modulus vary with the pressure;3)The technique to be developed would be tested and verified by experiment in thrust bearing apparatus. The research achievement could be a significant meaning for theory research of polymer thrust bearing and structural optimization.