Failure Analysis of a Grease-Lubricated Cylindrical Roller Bearing

Cylindrical roller bearings are commonly used in aircraft power transmission, machine tools, steel industries and others due to their precision and high load carrying capacity. In present study, an experimental test rig has been developed to investigate the wear in roller bearing. The changes in micro-geometry of the bearing components have been observed through scanning electron microscope. Some major cracks have been found over the inner race surface. Solid debris particles, removed from the inner race surface, further damage the other bearing surfaces. The lubricating grease has been also failed to provide elastohydrodynamic lubrication between the inner race and rollers. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy has been applied to examine the degradation of the lubricating grease. Influence of temperature, misalignments and roughness on the specific lubricant film thickness is discussed. Results show an impact of these parameters on roughness of bearing components.