Archives du mot-clef Bearing failure

Failure analysis of interfering part of a steam turbine journal bearing

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An article published in « Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis« , octobre 2014.

Journal bearings as so sensitive parts of steam turbines are very susceptible to failure through different mechanisms of wear, fatigue and crush during service conditions. Failure occurring through these mechanisms lead to turbine completely shut down as a result of interfering in working conditions of bearing different parts. In this paper, failed interfered part of a journal bearing related to a 320,000 kW steam turbine was examined. The studies were revealed that the bearing part loosing and inappropriate clearance can produce relative displacements under cyclic gradient loading. This condition was detrimental for the service life of turbine journal bearing via failure through fretting fatigue mechanism.

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Failure Analysis and Recovery of a 50-mm Highly Elastic Intermetallic NiTi Ball Bearing for an ISS Application

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2016-09-21_21h33_08Read the full text of an article reported on NASA Technical Reports Server

Ball bearings used inside the ISS Distillation Assembly centrifuge require superior corrosion and shock resistance to withstand acidic wastewater exposure and heavy spacecraft launch related loads. These requirements challenge conventional steel bearings and provide an ideal pathfinder application for 50-mm bore, deep-groove ball bearings made from the corrosion immune and highly elastic intermetallic material 60NiTi. During early ground testing in 2014 one 60NiTi bearing unexpectedly and catastrophically failed after operating for only 200 hr. A second bearing running on the same shaft was completely unaffected. An investigation into the root cause of the failure determined that an excessively tight press fit of the bearing outer race coupled with NiTi’s relatively low elastic modulus were key contributing factors. The proposed failure mode was successfully replicated by experiment. To further corroborate the root cause theory, a successful bearing life test using improved installation practices (selective fitting) was conducted. The results show that NiTi bearings are suitable for space applications provided that care is taken to accommodate their unique material characteristics.

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Observing early stage rail axle bearing damage

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Railway bearingA paper presented   at the Sixth International Conference of Engineering Failure Analysis on July 2014 in Lisbon – Protugal. This paper brings out the detail of investigation carried out on failing  rail axle bearing.

A novel condition monitoring system has for the first time enabled reliable extraction from service and detailed forensic examination of failing rail axle bearings, before the usual catastrophic destruction of the evidence. Computed Tomography has been used to produce a map of the damage allowing targeted sectioning of subsurface cracking. Traditional metallographic techniques have revealed large white etched layers associated with the subsurface cracking, while observations with a scanning electron microscope have confirmed rolling contact fatigue crack propagation, possibly initiated from pre-existing electrical arcing damage of the raceways.

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