ROLLING ELEMENT BEARING LUBRICANT DEBRIS DAMAGE ASSESSMENT AND LIFE PREDICTION

Rolling element bearing fatigue life can be significantly reduced by debris particles in lubricants. The debris particles cause raceway surface dents that initiate early fatigue damage. Optical interferometry has been found to be the best method for characterizing bearing raceway debris dent damage. This technique is used to determine the important features, sizes and density of dents. The resulting data file is then used to determine bearing fatigue life. Tests show that bearings manufactured by different processes and material types are affected differently by debris damage and that these differences must be considered by life prediction methodologies. Bearings made by a specific enhanced process can significantly resist the deleterious effects of debris damage and outperform bearings made by other means.