Rotating Beam Fatigue Testing and Hybrid Ceramic Bearings.
Abstract
Silicon nitride is the material of choice for ceramic rolling bearings. The issue of low operational reliability in certain rolling contact applications in DoD systems may be related to its limited room temperature bending strength as compared with modern bearing steels. To explore the cyclic fatigue strength of silicon nitride, rotating beam fatigue tests have been performed for two types of high quality bearing-grade HPSN. A total of 122 rotating beam specimens have been tested, mostly in the maximum stress range 600 - 850 MPA. Statistical method has been applied to the test data to obtain the fatigue exponent, Weibull slope and crack growth parameter for the two baseline materials. Theory of ceramic reliability has been applied to predict the failure probability of ceramic rod (in RCF test) and ceramic balls (in thrust loaded hybrid ball bearings) in terms of fatigue cycles and friction coefficient. Forty-eight (48) hybrid ceramic 6206 size ball bearings have been endurance tested using sudden-death method and ceramic balls of the same materials used in the rotating beam tests.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA310972
Entities
People
- Y. P. Chiu