Michael N.

Kotzalas1
Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

Fatigue Failure Progression in Ball Bearings

Typically, the life of a component containing rolling contacts is dened as the time to the initiation of a fatigue spall. Initiation of a spall does not always cause the component to stop performing its designed function. Operating the component past the initiation of a spall increases the heat generation rates and vibrations, eventually leading to total failure. A ball/v-ring test rig was used to initiate and progress spalls on bearing balls where spall progression was measured as a function of time, and vibrations monitored using accelerometers. A spall progression life mathematical model for balls endurance tested in the v-ring rig was created by extending the Ioannides Harris fatigue life theory. Also, excessive vibratory loading was determined to be the major cause of total component failure. DOI: 10.1115/1.1308013

Tedric A. Harris
Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

Introduction
Spall Initiation. Operation of a rolling bearing causes fatigue cracks to form within the subsurface material of highly stressed ballraceway contacts. The subsurface cracks propagate and coalesce causing removal of a portion of the contacting surface. This phenomenon is known as fatigue spalling and is shown in Fig. 1. Current methods for predicting the life of rolling element bearings are based upon the initiation of the rst spall. Typically an equation similar in form to Eq. 1 is used to predict the life of a ball bearing L 10

C P

(1)

Published work on spall progression is scant. Hoeprich 1 conducted experiments on spall progression with tapered roller bearings. His results indicated that the spall progression process was stochastic, as indicated by the median Wiebull slope of 1.1 for the tests conducted. Kotzalas and Harris 2 published an empirical method for estimation of friction within a failed ballraceway contact. The results of their work indicated that the friction within a failed ballraceway contact was not signicantly larger than that of the unfailed contact for a signicant period of time after initial spalling. Using the work of Kotzalas and Harris 2, it is possible to estimate the heat generation rates within a failed ball bearing. Finally, Li et al. 3 published an empirical method for predicting spall progression rates for tapered roller bearings, Eq. 2 dD K 1 D K2 dn (2)

Through condition monitoring, the increased vibration and noise associated with the initiation of a fatigue spall can be detected. Generally, the failed component is replaced and operation of the mechanism recommences. Spall Progression. When a bearing generates a fatigue spall, the contact stresses, vibratory loads, and heat generation rates are increased. This in turn causes more fatigue cracks to form within the unfailed subsurface material of the contacts. The propagation of existing subsurface cracks and the creation of new subsurface cracks causes continued deterioration of the contact surface, shown in Fig. 2. Repeated operation of the bearing progresses the fatigue spall until the entire contact area has been roughened. The increased heat generation rates and vibratory loads within a spalled bearing can lead to catastrophic failure of the mechanism. If the heat dissipation is such to cause the internal clearances within the bearing to disappear, the bearing could seize. Alternatively, the internal clearances could increase. This would lead to larger ball loads and possibly component fracture. Finally, the increased vibratory loads may be too high for the mechanism or system surrounding the bearing. Again, this could lead to catastrophic failure. In most applications, the replacement of the bearing after generation of the initial fatigue spall is an acceptable practice. However, in some applications the initiation of the rst spall does not indicate the end of the useful life of the bearing. Depending on the amount of acceptable vibratory loading within the system and the means for heat dissipation, a bearing with a fatigue spall might be used for many cycles of operation beyond the initial failure.
1 Currently with the Timken Company, Timken Research, Canton, OH 44706. Contributed by the Tribology Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS for presentation at the STLE/ASME Tribology Conference, Seattle, WA, October 14. Manuscript received by the Tribology Division Sept. 9, 1999; revised manuscript received March 9, 2000. Paper No. 2000-TRIB-3. Associate Editor: B. O. Jacobson.

In Eq. 2, K 1 and K 2 are empirical constants to be determined for all bearings and all operating conditions for which Eq. 2 is used.

Fig. 1 Ball bearing raceway with fatigue spall

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n end

e n start

1 S n end T c ln dV S n start z h

1/e

(7)

Equation 7 denes the number of cycles to cause a fatigue crack of critical size causing total failure within a given volume of material. To use Eq. 7, the probability of survival of the material at the starting point must be known. Equation 8, derived from Eq. 6, can be used to dene the probability of survival for a differential volume of material S n end exp ln S n start

AT c e e dV n end n start zh

(8)

Now, the number of cycles to progress a spall from a known starting point to a desired ending point can be predicted using Eqs. 7 and 8.

Experimental Investigation
To allow for the evaluation of a single rolling element, a ball/ v-ring test rig, Fig. 3, was used to initiate and progress spalling on bearing balls. Pratt & Whitney Division, United Technologies Corporation, originally designed the ball/v-ring test rig to simulate the operation of balls in high speed, angular-contact ball bearings. The bearing balls to be run in this rig have ats ground on their sides to ensure the ball/v-ring contacts consistently follow the same tracks on the ball. See Fig. 4. The bearing balls were made from CVD AISI 52,100 steel through hardened to a minimum of 58 R c with a contact surface nish of 0.013 m 0.5 in.. The v-rings were made from VIMVAR M50 steel through hardened to 58 R c with a contact surface nish of 0.15 m 6.0 in.. The lubricant satised Mil-L23699D specications. The ball/v-ring test rig was equipped with horizontally and vertically oriented accelerometers, an electromagnetic ux sensor, and an acoustic microphone to collect data during the tests. Table 1 indicates the operating conditions for the tests conducted. Each ball was continuously run until an initial fatigue spall was present. Table 2 shows the Weibull distribution parameters determined from the spall initiation testing. Table 2 has been included to give an estimate of the initial condition for the spalled

Fig. 2 Ball with progressed fatigue spall

To this date, no mathematical model developed from rst principles, for the prediction of spall progression rates within a rolling contact, has been presented.

Spall Progression Theory

Due to the stochastic nature of spall progression, the work of Lundburg and Palmgren 4 was initially considered to model the spall progression phenomenon. Lundberg and Palmgren 4 gave the probability of survival of an elemental volume dV loaded by a nonchanging cyclic stress as Eq. 3 1 dS n d n g n dV S n dn dn (3)

Integrating Eq. 3 between n 0 and n N yields Eq. 4, which is the basic equation for both the Lundberg and Palmgren 4 and Ioannides and Harris 5 bearing life prediction methods ln 1 G n dV S n (4)

At this point, it should be noted that the Ioannides and Harris 5 method can be considered an improved version of the Lundberg and Palmgren 4 method; henceforth only the Ioannides and Harris 5 method will be discussed. Ioannides and Harris 5 further developed Eq. 4 to yield Eq. 5 ln 1 S n

AT c N e z h dV

(5)

According to Lundberg and Palmgren 4, for 52,100 steel bearings, exponents c 31/3, h 7/3, and e 10/9. Using metric units, constant A 98.1 7450 in English system units. Integrating Eq. 3 between a beginning number of cycles n start and an ending number of cycles n end and using the Ioannides and Harris 5 denition of the function G yields Eq. 6 ln

e e e Tc T start n start S n start endn end A dV h S n end z start zh end

(6)

Spall progression is a noncontinuous process. That is, when the spall progresses, the contact area and stress abruptly change, and then do not change until the next spall progression event. Because of this, the assumption that the stress criterion in Eq. 6 remains constant between spall progressions ( T start T end T ) was made. This allows for the rearranging of Eq. 6 into Eq. 7 Journal of Tribology

Fig. 3 Schematic drawing of ballv-ring endurance test rig developed by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division, United Technologies Corporation

APRIL 2001, Vol. 123 239

Fig. 5 Scaled accelerometer signal and spall size as a function of time

Table 3 Wiebull distribution parameters for spall progression Fig. 4 Schematic of ball in the groove of a v-ring Set No. Weibull slope 0.87 0.75 2.24 1.06 L 10 min 14.3 21.9 2.8 8.8 L 10 (106 cycles) 1.24 1.89 0.24 0.76

balls used in progression testing. Next, one ball from each set indicated in Table 1 was run past initial spalling; testing was periodically stopped to measure spall size. The remainder of the tests for each set were conducted with minimal stoppage. Stopping the ball/v-ring test rig causes changes in speeds and load, which might effect the spall progression rates. During spall progression testing, it became evident that large vibratory loads develop over time. This can be seen in Fig. 5, where the vertically mounted accelerometers time averaged signal is plotted along with spall size as a function of time. In Fig. 5, two distinct spall progression regions exist: i Slow, stable spall progression with minimal vibratory loading, and ii Fast, unstable spall progression with large, rapidly increasing vibratory loads. Due to the unstable spall progression rates and large vibratory loading present in region II, the boundary between regions I and II was selected as the spall progression life. The vertical accelerometer signals time derivative was approximated, and a value of 0.5 mV/s was used to dene the boundary of spall progression life. Table 3 indicates the Weibull distribution parameters for the progression tests conducted.
Table 1 Operating conditions for the spall initiation and progression tests Set No. 1 2 3 4 Maximum Hertz stress GPa 3.172 3.172 3.861 3.861 Oil supply temperature C 37.8 71.0 37.8 71.0 Ratio 0.85 0.61 0.56 0.41

1 2 3 4

Ballv-Ring Mathematical Model

Introduction. The ball/v-ring mathematical model of Yu 6 was used in this study. This model predicts unfailed ball and slave ring speeds for a given drive ring speed and lubricant input temperature. This model also predicts the average lubricant contact and lm forming temperature using the method of Harris and Barnsby 7. Modications of this model for failed balls are discussed below. Surface Shear and Normal Stress Estimation. To estimate the shear and normal stresses acting over a spalled contact, the isothermal, steady state, Reynolds equation for Newtonian uid lubrication, Eq. 9, was solved for an assumed ellipsoidal spall geometry.

h3 p h3 p h h u x 12 x y 12 y x y

(9)

Table 2 Wiebull distribution parameters for spall initiation Set No. 1 2 3 4 Weibull slope 1.52 2.38 3.10 2.40 L 10 h 4.21 3.83 1.23 0.73 L 10 (106 cycles) 32.04 29.15 9.36 5.56

The steady state Reynolds equation was used to approximate this transient phenomenon for the sake of simplicity. The solution of Eq. 9 for a spalled contact indicated the breakdown of the lubricant lm along the direction of friction from the spall edge. Figure 6 shows the lm thickness distribution for a spall with a small surface area which was operated under pure rolling conditions. In Fig. 6, the lubricant lm rupture was not complete; rupture would have been complete for a larger spall. Thus, a boundary lubrication region appears to exist due to the presence of a spall in the contact. To achieve a correct estimate of the lubricant return temperature in the ball/v-ring model, a boundary lubrication region of 10 Hz semiminor axis lengths was used with a Coulomb friction coefcient of 0.12. The remainder of the contact in the solution of Eq. 9 had a lm thickness equal to its unfailed value. For this region, Eq. 10 from Harris and Barnsby 7 was used to estimate the surface shear stress

p 1

1 hc lim s

(10)

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Fig. 6 Film thickness distribution over a spalled contact for dimensionless velocity 1.683 10 12, dimensionless material parameter 4522, dimensionless load 1.106 10 7 , and contact aspect ratio 1.25

Fig. 7 Predicted spall progression times for 90 percent survivability versus time

In Eq. 10, is determined using the method of Greenwood and Williamson 8, and lim was selected equal to 0.11 according to the data of Schipper et al. 9. From the solution of Eq. 9, the pressure distribution appeared to be almost Hertzian in nature. The variations from the Hertzian pressure distributions were a negligible pressure over the spalled area and pressure spikes around the spall edge subtending small surface areas. Due to this observation, a modied Hertzian pressure distribution with no pressure over the spall was assumed, and was then equilibrated with the applied load. Subsurface Stresses. The model of Yu 6 utilized the elastic half space stress methods of Love 10 for normal loading and Ahmadi et al. 11 for shear loading to approximate the Von Mises stress within the material. The initial spall size was approximately the size of twice the Hertzian semimajor axis, and quickly grew to several times this value. Thus, it was considered a valid approximation to use an elastic quarter space to estimate the subsurface stress eld. To do this, an image solution was used where equivalent stresses were applied symmetrically about the quarter space free edge. This allowed for the use of elastic half space methods of Love 10 and Ahmadi et al. 11 to again approximate a Von Mises stress eld in the material. The residual stress present within the subsurface of the contact track was considered. The surface residual stress was measured using x-ray methods. A nonfailed surface residual stress of approximately 552 MPa 80 ksi was estimated using a curve t to the residual stress data as a function of spall size. The subsurface residual stress was approximated by Eq. 11 as a function of spall size by normalizing the curve for surface residual stress by the nonfailed value and multiplying by a measured subsurface value of 345 MPa 50 ksi.

stress is above the material fatigue limit. For AISI 52100 steel, Harris 12 gives the fatigue limit as 552 MPa 80 ksi. Empirical relations for the spall progression region width, Eq. 12, and length, Eq. 13, were developed. w Sp 0.4177 8.647 l Sp 2.487b

l Sp lT

(12) (13)

The spall progression volume can be approximated as the volume of material within the spall progression region dened by Eqs. 12 and 13 and whose Von Mises stress is greater than the material fatigue limit. Dynamic Loading. The direction of spall progression during testing was always along the trailing edge of the contact. Since the direction of friction for the balldrive ring contact is opposite to that for the ballslave ring contact, the boundary lubrication region following the spall must have only a minor effect on spall progression. It appears that spall progression is mainly a function of vibratory loading caused by the rough surface of the spall traversing the contact. The lubricant within the unfailed ball track ring contact acts as a viscous damper reducing the vibratory loads. This is due to the viscous energy loss associated with the squeeze lms produced by the vibrations. Due to this, it appears the vibratory loads will be greatest immediately following the spalled area, causing the trailing volume of unfailed material into the contact to fail rst. A comparison of the spall size and accelerometer signals versus time in Fig. 5 leads to the assumption of a square root function, Eq. 14, for dynamic load versus spall size Q Dynamic K Spl Sp / l T (14) To approximate the constant K Sp in Eq. 14, the life associated with 50 percent survivability was matched to the total measured life for each ball, and a mean value of K Sp was determined. However, dynamic loading is very specic to the system in which the bearing is operated. Therefore, it is desirable to eliminate dynamic loading from the analysis. In Fig. 5, the dynamic loads are present after initiation of the spall, but remain minimal until region II spall progression. Also, the spall size remains relatively small allowing for the assumption of a single progression event with no dynamic loading to dene the spall progression life. To investigate this assumption, the progression life associated with 90 percent survivability was determined with dynamic loading and by using the above assumptions and is shown in Fig. 7. From Fig. 7, it can be seen that the rst progression event without dynamic loading can be used to approximate the spall progression life of the bearing balls within this investigation. APRIL 2001, Vol. 123 241

RS Rolling Direction 345 MPa 1 5.264 10 3

3.614

l SP lT

l SP lT

RS Rolling Direction 345 MPa 1 2.424 10 3

2.348

l SP lT

(11) l SP 2 lT

Spall Progression Volume. The volume at risk to fail was considered in this investigation to be the spall progression volume. The volume at risk to fail for the Ioannides and Harris 5 bearing life prediction model was the material whose Von Mises Journal of Tribology

Table 4 Predicted L 10 Progression lives for the ballv-ring experiments Set No. 1 2 3 4 Predicted L 10 min 9.6 19.1 9.1 13.7 Predicted L 10 (106 cycles) 0.83 1.65 0.79 1.19 Life ratio predicted/measured 0.67 0.87 3.25 1.56

Results
Table 4 gives the results for the predicted spall progression L 10 lives using the current method, assuming the number of cycles to initiate a spall was equal to the Ioannides and Harris 5 L 10 life. The L 10 spall progression lives presented tend to show that the proposed model can be used to predict the remaining useful life when the maximum Hertz stress is limited to values normally encountered in bearing applications. It is probable that, at greater Hertz stresses, increased plasticity affects the accuracy of the analysis, which was conducted principally on the basis of elastic material behavior.

g function of the material condition at a given number of stress cycles n h bearing life exponent on depth h lubricant lm thickness l length n number of cycles of operation for a rolling contact p contact pressure s sliding velocity within the contact u lubricant entrainment velocity along the contact x axis v lubricant entrainment velocity along the contact y axis w width z depth to the elemental volume dV material condition parameter for a given number of stress cycles n lubricant viscosity asperity Coulomb friction coefcient lubricant density material subsurface stress surface shear stress asperity contact area fraction Subscripts 10 the life which 90 percent of bearings will survive 10 percent of bearings will fail Dynamic dynamic effects associated with spalling RS residual stress Sp current spall size T ball contact track c central lim limiting value

Conclusion
Depending on the effectiveness with which frictional heat is dissipated, it appears that bearings may continue to operate for a signicant period of time after initial spalling. The limiting factor for the remaining useful life, however, might not be due to the increased heat generated by operating the spalled bearing. The dynamic loading caused by contact with the rough spall surface appears to have the greatest affect in limiting the remaining useful life. Using the theory presented, it appears that the spall progression life can be predicted as long as bearing seizure or component fracture does not occur.

References
1 Hoeprich, M. R., 1992, Rolling Element Bearing Fatigue Damage Propagation, Trans. ASME, J. Tribol., 114, pp. 328333. 2 Kotzalas, M. N., and Harris, T. A., 2000, Fatigue Failure and Ball Bearing Friction, Tribol. Trans., 43, No. 1, pp. 137143. 3 Li, Y., Billington, S., Zhang, C., Kurfess, T., Danyluk, S., and Liang, S., 1999, Dynamic Prognostic Prediction of Defect Propagation on Rolling Element Bearings, Tribol. Trans., 42, No. 2, pp. 385392. 4 Lundberg, G., and Palmgren, A., 1947, Dynamic Capacity of Rolling Bearings, Acta Polytech. Mech. Eng. Ser. 1, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, No. 3, pp. 550. 5 Ioannides, E., and Harris, T., 1985, A New Fatigue Life Model for Rolling Bearings, Trans. ASME, J. Tribol., 107, pp. 367378. 6 Yu, W. K., 1999, A New Stress-Based Fatigue Life Model for Rolling Bearings, Ph.D. thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 7 Harris, T. A., and Barnsby, R. M., 1998, Tribological Performance Prediction of Aircraft Gas Turbine Mainshaft Ball Bearings, Tribol. Trans., 41, pp. 6068. 8 Greenwood, J., and Williamson, J., 1966, Contact of Nominally Flat Surfaces, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 295, pp. 300319. 9 Schipper, D., Vroegop, P., de Gee, A., and Bosma, R., 1990, Micro-EHL in Lubricated Concentrated Contacts, Trans. ASME, J. Tribol., 112, No. 2, pp. 392397. 10 Love, A. E. H., 1929, The Stress Produced in a Semi-Innite Solid by Pressure on Part of the Boundary, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 228, pp. 377420. 11 Ahmadi, N., Keer, L. M., Mura, T., and Vithoontien, V., 1987, The Interior Stress Field Caused by Tangential Loading of a Rectangular Patch on an Elastic Half Space, Trans. ASME, J. Tribol., 109, pp. 627629. 12 Harris, T. A., 1999, Presentation of the ASME Committee on Bearing Fatigue, 1999 ASME/STLE International Tribology Conference, Orlando, FL, October 1013.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Applied Research Laboratory of the Pennsylvania State University. The project was conducted under a contract from Barron Associates, Inc. to A.R.L. at Penn State.

Nomenclature
A C D G K L N P Q S T V b c e material constant for bearing life prediction basic dynamic capacity spall surface area function of the material condition at a given number of stress cycles n empirical constant bearing rating life in time of continuous operation predicted bearing life in number of cycles bearing load contact load probability of survival stress criterion for bearing life prediction volume of contact material Hertzian semi-minor axis length bearing life exponent on stress bearing life exponent on number of cycles

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