Electrical pitting wear debris analysis of grease-lubricated rolling element bearings

Abstract

Abstract The electrical pitting from wear debris formed by grease-lubricated rolling element bearings was tested. Subsequently, various conclusive findings arose from the tests. The various tests included testing for: typical wear modes and mechanisms, wear debris morphology (with wear modes and mechanisms), the results of various experiments, the results relating to experiments undertaken at temperatures, the interaction effects on corrugated widths, corrugated lengths and the typical bearing worn surfaces at three dissimilar electrical pitting stages (hereinafter referred to as: regimes). Using different techniques, this study methodically assessed the effects of electrical currents and mechanical parameters combined with grease-lubricated rolling element bearings. The lubricated bearings were tested using the AC field. Typical characteristics or morphologies of electrical pitting wear particles were observed. In addition, the electrical pitting wear regimes, which corresponded to the respective physical responses, such as; bearing housing temperature, worn surfaces, corrugated width, corrugated length and the morphology of wear debris were anticipated. Thus, from the experiments undertaken, three different wear regimes were revealed. These were dependant on the test parameters. Each stage produced wear particles, which were supported the belief that morphology had taken place at each stage.