Abstract
Three decades have passed since the introduction of silicon nitride rollers and balls into conventional rolling-element bearings. For a given applied load, the contact (Hertz) stress in a hybrid bearing will be higher than that of an all-steel rolling-element bearing. The silicon nitride rolling-element life as well as the lives of the steel races were used to determine the resultant bearing life of both hybrid and all-steel bearings. Life factors were determined and reported for hybrid bearings. Under nominal operating speeds, the resultant calculated lives of the deep-groove, angular-contact, and cylindrical roller hybrid bearings with races made of post-1960 bearing steel increased by factors of 3.7, 3.2, and 5.5, respectively, from those calculated using the Lundberg-Palmgren equations. An all-steel bearing under the same load will have a longer life than the equivalent hybrid bearing under the same conditions. Under these conditions, hybrid bearings are predicted to have a lower fatigue life than all-steel bearings by 58 % for deep-groove bearings, 41 % for angular-contact bearings, and 28% for cylindrical roller bearings.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 425-435 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Tribology Transactions |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2005 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering
- Surfaces and Interfaces
- Surfaces, Coatings and Films
Keywords
- Bearing life prediction
- Hybrid rolling bearings
- Rolling-element bearings
- Silicon nitride rolling elements