Damping Properties of Thin Oil Films Subjected to High-Frequency Alternating Loads

Damping Properties of Thin Oil Films Subjected to High-Frequency Alternating Loads

An investigation has been made into the energy loss in thin oil films when these were subjected to high-frequency alternating loads.

Experiments were performed on oil films between two parallel plates when one of them was given a sinusoidal motion relative to the other in a direction normal to the plane of the plates. The frequencies used were in the range 400 to 4000 c/sec.

The experiments showed that the energy loss is less than would be expected because of cavitation of the oil film and a qualitative theory is given which goes some way towards explaining the experimental results.