Abstract
Rolling bearings working in oscillating applications often suffer from false brinelling and fretting corrosion that limit their service life. At present, the study of oscillation-induced failures is primarily dominated by a large number of sliding and bench tests. However, most of the previous work are not able to fully describe the two closely related but different failure mechanisms. In this study, the origin and evolution of the two failures are thoroughly investigated under strictly controlled oscillating rolling conditions. The results show that failure evolves from false brinelling to fretting corrosion under dry friction conditions regardless of the oscillation amplitude. This process is accompanied by a large area peeling and serious oxidation, and the oxygen content increases from 2.50 wt% to 21.22 wt%. Oxidation is a crucial factor in the evolution of false brinelling into fretting corrosion. However, the distribution of microwear and oxygen content depend on the oscillation amplitude. Under lubrication conditions, the friction coefficient (COF) is smaller in the initial stage and led to local slip or transient instability of rolling elements. Therefore, the size of the wear marks and COF increased and appeared to be larger than those under a dry friction condition. However, grease can separate the contact surfaces, only surface deformation owing to false brinelling and slight damage at the roughness level occurred. The evolution of false brinelling and fretting corrosion is also closely related to residual stress. False brinelling often occurrs with residual stress accomulation, meanwhile, the residual stress increases from 120 to 300 MPa. When peeling occurs, residual stress is released. The failure pattern transformed from false brinelling to fretting corrosion and is accompanied by oxidation. So far, none of investigation is able to show satisfactory evolution of oscillating-induced failures, this study may contribute to more scientific understanding of rolling bearings against long-run reciprocating oscillating wear.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Science and Technology Program of State Administration for Market Regulation (2023MK181), the Fundamental Research Funds for NIM (AKYZD2203) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52075514 and 52275206). We also would like to thank Prof. Wei Pu for the guidance on this study, and to thank Dr. Li Xu for the expert tips on the measurement of residual stress.
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Xin JIA. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2021 from Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China. He studied the preparation of vacuum coating and application during Ph.D. period. Now He is a research assistant fellow in National Institute of Metrology, Beijing, China. His research area mainly focuses on advanced tribological metrology, and preparation and characterization of the functional coatings.
Lu HUANG. She received her Ph.D. degree in 2016 from State Key Lab of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. She studied the mechanism of grease and oil lubrication during Ph.D. period. Now she is an associate research fellow in National Institute of Metrology, Beijing, China. Her research area mainly focuses on advanced tribological metrology, the evaluation of lubricants and materials, and nanoparticle characterization.
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Jia, X., Huang, L., Sun, M. et al. Origin and evolution of false brinelling and fretting corrosion under rolling conditions. Friction 12, 618–631 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0768-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0768-0