Critical stresses and strains at the spall edge of a case hardened bearing due to ball impact

Short spall propagation times of failing main shaft ball bearings of aircraft engines are a serious safety concern for single engine aircraft. Bearing designers would like to understand the impact of four variables namely (i) ball material density, (ii) subsurface residual stress, (iii) gradient in yield strength with depth (case hardening), and (iv) raceway surface hardness/yield strength that are thought to affect spall propagation. Extensive spall propagation experiments have been conducted at AFRL, Ohio in the past few years to address this issue. However, a detailed mechanistic analysis of these experiments has not been performed. This work presents an elastic–plastic finite element (FE) model that simulates a ball impacting a spall edge to determine the relative contributions of the four material variables on spall propagation. The magnitude and extent of damage of the spall edge material is determined based on critical stresses and plastic strains induced by the ball impact. The results indicate that the influence of ball density is greatest on inducing damage at the impacted spall edge when compared to the other three properties, which also agrees with the hybrid bearing spall propagation tests conducted at AFRL.

► We present numerical and experimental investigation of spall propagation in ball bearings.
► Flow curves as a function of depth for case hardened steels is used for models.
► 3D elastic–plastic FEA results of ball impact with spall edge is presented.
► Initial compressive residual stress, ball mass, and gradient in flow curve are considered.
► Ball mass has the most significant impact on spall propagation characteristics.