An Experimental Investigation of Rolling Contact Fatigue of Steels Using Acoustic Emission Method

Článek recenzovaný mimo WoS a Scopus

en

Rolling-element bearings are widely used machine components and their failure can result in damage to the whole machine. A bearing failure can be caused by many factors such as improper lubrication, presence of abrasive particles, overloading, moisture, corrosive environment, improper mounting, electrical discharges and material defects. These causes can be eliminated by observance of correct operating conditions, except rolling contact fatigue (RCF). For this reason, the full-scale bearing life tests or material tests for RCF resistance are performed. Various methods of condition monitoring are used to detect damage of these components or specimens in the industry or during testing in laboratories. An analysis of vibrations from tested bearings/specimens is the most widely used method for damage detection and is based on vibration acceleration measurement and its analysis in the time or frequency domain. A more sensitive method for surface damage or subsurface crack detection is the acoustic emission (AE) method. Over the past three decades, the AE based monitoring has developed as a potential tool for rolling bearing diagnostics. This paper is aimed on detection and monitoring of onset and propagation of natural defects of steel specimens using the AE technology. The experiments were carried out under various loading conditions on specimens of case-hardening steel 16MnCr5. The AE signal parameters such as count rate, cumulative count rate and RMS were compared with vibration levels and temperature. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that the AE monitoring method can be employed as an evaluation tool for rolling contact fatigue testing of material specimens.

Acoustic emission, Condition monitoring, Fatigue, Steel

2013-12-01

BINDT

Northampton

1354-2575

INSIGHT

55

12

665–669

5