A method for measuring the thickness of transparent oil film on water surface using laser trigonometry

We present a method for measurement of thickness of transparent oil film on water surface based on laser trigonometry. With an oblique incident mode of single-point laser triangulation ranging system, laser light is incident on the upper and lower surfaces of the oil film being measured and an ellipse light spot is formed on the upper and lower surfaces of the oil film. The two light spots are imaged on an image plane CCD by an imaging lens and the image spot is formed and stored in a computer. The thickness of oil film being measured can be obtained by displacement of the image spot and the configuration parameter of the imaging system. The experiment is conducted using edible peanut oil and diesel oil. The research results show that the method presented in this paper is feasible and applicable to dynamic on-line measurement of oil film thickness of oil spill on sea surface.