Microstructure evolution analysis of aviation bearing in service process based on CPFEM

Abstract

The working environment of aviation bearings is harsh and require high reliability. The bearing service performance is not only affected by the complex working conditions of the bearing, but also by the microstructure of bearing steel smelting. The key to achieving personalized design of high-performance bearings is to combine the complex working conditions of the bearing with the microstructure of the bearing steel to reveal the failure mechanism of the bearing. In this paper, a bearing thermal-solid coupling model is established by Python scripts, and the fluid characteristics is calculated based on the CFD method. At the same time, the multifield coupling conditions of the bearing and the bearing microstructure are combined to establish a bearing macro–micro coupling model, according to the bearing's EBSD and SEM measurement results. The stress distribution characteristics of the bearing microstructure is calculated by the sub-model method. On this basis, the microscopic failure evolution process of the bearing under the multifield coupling action is calculated and revealed by the crystal plastic finite element method. The results show that during the bearing service, some bearing inclusions will have a large difference in stress components, the surrounding grains will move significantly and the stress will accumulate, which will eventually lead to the initiation of the bearing fatigue failure.