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Abstract
The rating life of ball bearings is reduced when hard particle contaminants are present in the lubricant. Usually,
this life reduction is taken into account in the calculation of modified rating life by using the contamination factor
through a general characterization of the lubrication conditions. However, the impact of contaminants variables
such as size, hardness and concentration level should be specified in detail. In this work, greases contaminated with
steel and alumina particles of the same size are tested with the purpose of finding examining the wear mechanism
and its progress inside the bearings. A laboratory rig is utilized for these tests and vibration analysis is performed to
estimate the condition and the residual life of the bearings. After the tests, optical inspections performed in a
stereoscope verify the predictions of vibration analyses and give a graphical point of the wear. It was found that
steel particles, after their initial deformation, produce milder wear than corundum particles. The wear mechanism
is found to be different in the case of hard particles which are causing severe wear due to abrasion. The expected
useful life in this case is much lower than that calculated according to the current methods and therefore the
relevant methodology has to be revised.
Keywords
Wear, bearings, vibration analysis, maintenance, condition monitoring
1. Introduction
Rolling element bearings can exhibit an operational
life much longer than the life of the machine they are
installed on. When bearings have been chosen
correctly, handled, installed and maintained properly,
their service life can be well predicted from their basic
rating life L10 as it is calculated by their manufacturer.
Usually the operating conditions are different from the
ideal conditions on which the L10 life is based, leading
to a reduction of their service life. In order to take into
account these different operating conditions, the
international standard ISO 281:2007 has moved
towards a system approach of the bearing and has
introduced the modified rating life Lnm which is based
on the L10 life, the reliability modification factor a1 and
the modification factor ISO which is a function of
lubricating conditions, lubricant contamination,
operating temperature and fitting stresses.
Most of the largest bearing manufacturers state that
lubricant contamination is the major cause of bearing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Copyright 2014 by author(s) and IJMEE
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2. Theory Overview
2.1. The Basic Rating Life of Rolling Element
Bearings
During their operating life, bearings are carrying
loads which cause variable stresses to the contact
surfaces. These Hertzian contact stresses are the main
cause of fatigue, determining the useful operating life.
This service life of rolling element bearings can be
estimated based on the Weibull distribution and its
application on bearings. Based on Weibulls theory
Palmgren and Lundberg [1] proposed that for a given
probability n, the service life of bearing can be
calculated from the equation below:
Ln
where: Ln
Qc
Q
p
Qc p
Q
(1)
(2)
ISO f
where: ec
Cu
P
(3)
= Contamination factor.
= Fatigue load limit.
= Dynamic equivalent load.
= Viscosity ratio of the lubricant.
3
=( )
2
Where:
Hs
Hp
[ ln (23 )]
2
3
(4)
2
1
3
[
]
(1 2)
(6)
2
= [1 ( ) ]
Where:
Hs
(5)
3. Experiments
3.1. Experimental Setup
In order to investigate the impact of particle
contaminants hardness we are using a test rig that
simulates a common industrial arrangement where a
shaft is radially loaded on its free end. The schematic
of the bearing test rig is shown in Figure 2. Three
different types of bearings are used, having the same
bore diameter. This selection has been made in order
to use in each housing bearings with different
characteristic frequencies and as a result to have a
clearer indication about the source of the measured
vibration signal. All bearings have conical internal rings
with a bore diameter of 35mm and they are mounted
on the shaft with the use of proper adapter sleeves.
Two
Kistler
type
8792A25T
three-axial
accelerometers are mounted with magnets on the top
of the two plumper type housings. Visualization and
processing of the signals is made through HBM
CATMAN software installed on a Laptop PC. The
naming of the axes is following the naming of the
accelerometers axes which is: x for the axis of the
shaft, z for the axis of the load direction and y for the
axis vertical to the plane xz. Also, a K-type
thermometer was used in order to measure the shaft,
bearings and housings temperatures and the ambient
temperature.
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test
Material
Mesh size
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Steel
Steel
Steel
Steel
Corundum
Corundum
Corundum
Corundum
180-220
150-180
120-150
80-120
180-220
150-180
120-150
80-120
Particle
size (m)
62-73
73-78
88-104
105-177
62-73
73-78
88-104
105-177
Average
size (m)
68
80
91
141
68
80
91
141
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SKF 2207
EKTN9
rear
SKF YSA
207 - 2FK
load
19,000N
30,700N
25,500N
6,000N
8,800N
15,300N
3,500N
6
160 x10
700N
6
84,400 x10
2,800N
6
760 x10
1,110
585,800
5,250
ec
ISO
L10m
0.8
3.8
4,240
0.6
2.6
2,850
0.18
0.77
856
0.05
0.36
400
0.1
111
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0.08
X: 140
Y: 251.2
Z: 4.657
FFT2
FFT2
0.06
0.04
0.02
14
100
200
10
300
400
Frequency (Hz)
100
6
500
600
20
Fre
Time (hours)
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FFT2
5. 1.5
Discussion
0.04
X: 140
Y: 251.4
Z: 1.578
FFT2
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0.03
0.02
0.01
0
100
20
Fre
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
6. Conclusions
From the conducted tests it is concluded that the
hardness of the contaminant particles and their size
affect strongly the wear process. It is found that
harder particles cause greater damage to the bearing,
but the size seems to have different effects depending
on the type of the contaminants used. When ductile
contaminants were used, the vibration levels were
higher and the damage was grater as particle size
increased, with a higher increase when the particle
size was larger than 100m. Brittle contaminants do
not affect the wear mechanism in the same way. These
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