Identification of surface roughness parameters using wavelet transforms

Characterization of surface topology is important in applications relating friction, lubrication and wear. In general it has been found that friction increases with middling roughness. Roughness parameters are therefore, important in applications such as automobile brake linings, floor surfaces, and tires. In the present paper, the surface profile is considered as a signal and using wavelet transforms a coherent approach for evaluating the surface roughness is proposed. The main contribution of the paper is to present wavelength based surface features extracted from the surface profiles by wavelet analysis. By this technique surface roughness can be separated from the actual profile and the ‘Ra’ value can be measured.