Design effects on the fretting wear behaviour of ball bearings

A change in design of a ball bearing is described based on the results of numerical and experimental analysis to reduce fretting wear, Increasing the radii of curvature of the inner and outer races by a small amount reduces the product of the relative slip delta and the tangential traction tau at the contact region, both of which are caused by Heathcote slip, This results in the consequent reduction in fret ting wear because there Is a good correlation between the amount of fretting wear and tau delta. This prediction is confirmed experimentally by increasing the groove radius of the inner race from 4.02 to 4.21 mm for a ball of radius 3.97 mm. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.