Active Monitoring of RCF in Toroidal Bearings using Acoustic Emission

conference paper

en

This paper demonstrates the results of tests carried out on toroidal bearing speci-mens using Acoustic Emission (AE) as a non-destructive testing (NDT) method. The main goal is to identify the characteristics of the Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) in this type of newly-developed bearings during the tests. Toroidal bear-ings have been characterized by their unique design, which combines two very important characteristics, the self-aligning capability which gives the bearing the ability to tolerate angular misalignment, and the axial displacement capability, which makes the bearing resistant to shaft elongation or similar effects. Those unique characteristics contributed to the significant increase in the application of Toroidal bearings in different fields especially in the wind turbine industry. The main concentration of this paper was on the period of the test before the appear-ance of pitting. It is thought that by analyzing the AE signal in this period (before pitting starts to take place) it is possible to identify a pattern of the signal which can distinguish the initiation of the pitting. This will enable us later to better un-derstand the behavior of the specimen during the test and to later predict such be-havior. The experiments took place on a stand specially-designed for this type of bearings to obtain results from AE sensors. This work represents the first step towards other more advanced steps to better understand the pitting mechanisms in toroidal bearings.

This paper demonstrates the results of tests carried out on toroidal bearing speci-mens using Acoustic Emission (AE) as a non-destructive testing (NDT) method. The main goal is to identify the characteristics of the Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) in this type of newly-developed bearings during the tests. Toroidal bear-ings have been characterized by their unique design, which combines two very important characteristics, the self-aligning capability which gives the bearing the ability to tolerate angular misalignment, and the axial displacement capability, which makes the bearing resistant to shaft elongation or similar effects. Those unique characteristics contributed to the significant increase in the application of Toroidal bearings in different fields especially in the wind turbine industry. The main concentration of this paper was on the period of the test before the appear-ance of pitting. It is thought that by analyzing the AE signal in this period (before pitting starts to take place) it is possible to identify a pattern of the signal which can distinguish the initiation of the pitting. This will enable us later to better un-derstand the behavior of the specimen during the test and to later predict such be-havior. The experiments took place on a stand specially-designed for this type of bearings to obtain results from AE sensors. This work represents the first step towards other more advanced steps to better understand the pitting mechanisms in toroidal bearings.

Rolling contact fatigue, acoustic emission, toroidal bearings, pitting

19.07.2023

Springer Singapore

978-981-99-1988-8

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Maintenance, Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics 2021

73–81

8