FRICTIONAL INSTABILITIES IN ROLLING BEARINGS

A COMPUTER MODELING APPROACH IS PROPOSED TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF FRICTION OR TRACTION CHARACTERISTICS OF LUBRICANTS ON THE STABILITY OF BEARING ELEMENTS AND THE OVERALL LIFE OF A ROLLING BEARING. THE PROPOSED APPROACH CONSISTS OF USING AN EXISTING BEARING DYNAMICS COMPUTER PROGRAM TO SIMULATE THE DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE BEARING AS A FUNCTION OF THE FRICTION BEHAVIOR AT THE ROLLING ELEMENT/RACE, ROLLING ELEMENT/CAGE AND CAGE/RACE INTERACTIONS. SUCH A PARAMETRIC INVESTIGATION WILL IDENTIFYTHE RANGE OF FRICTION BEHAVIOR IN WHICH A DYNAMICALLY STABLE BEARING OPERATION MAY BE POSSIBLE. THUS, THE RESULTSWILL PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT GUIDANCE FOR THE REQUIRED DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS AND LUBRICANTS FOR ROLLING BEARING APPLICATIONS IN ADVERSE OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS.