Abstract
Alminum alloy has been gradually adpoted for engines components for reduction fo its weight. A bearing housing mode of Aluminum alloy tends to reduce interference between the nousing and bearing under the operating condition due to higher coefficient of linear thermal expansion of Aluminum alloy. Less bearing/housing interference tends to cause bearing creep, and the creep causes damage to the bearing race. The mechanism of the race damage was investigated in this study. The bearing creep speed, retainer rotation speed and inner race temperature were measured, and theoretical retainer speed was calculated using measured bearing creep speed. It was found that larger creep speed caused larger deviation of measured retainere speeds from calculations. According to increase of the deviation, the inner race temperature, however, decreased at first, and turned to incerase at acertain point. This temperature trend could be explained by the ball/race skidding retio considering differential skidding and the deviation. Finally, the effect of temperature rise of the race cuased by creep was investigated by the durability test. Findings showed that temperature rise caused the damage to the bearing race.
