Investigation of fretting wear in journal bearings

Purpose - Fretting wear takes place when two contacting solid surfaces are subjected to relatively small amplitude oscillatory motion in the order of a few microns. The purpose of this paper is the design and manufacture of a fretting wear test rig that can analyze fretting wear on journal bearings. Design/methodology/approach - This study included the manufacturing and operating principles of the test rig. In the test rig, the shaft was fixed and vibrational motion was given to the bearing housing. Vibration motion the amplitude of which could be adjusted was used on the test rig. The vibration motion was applied to a two-piece journal bearing on a fixed shaft supported from both ends. Findings - Vibration amplitude was provided by a micro vibration engine (motor) to be under 100 mu m. Originality/value - Also, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray and X-ray diffraction analyses of the samples were investigated.