An Approach to Evaluate the Abrasive Land Wear of High-Speed Bearings

Abstract

State-of-the-art bearing materials, such as Pyrowear 675(P675) have been developed to meet the requirements of the next generation of gas turbine engines. P675 bearings have exhibited higher land wear compared to conventional M50 bearings under contaminated test conditions. Surface modification techniques can be applied to enhance the wear resistance of bearing land surfaces. A coating has been developed to minimize abrasive wear of land surfaces. A new procedure using a 40 mm bearing test rig has been developed to effectively evaluate land wear under simulated contaminated condition. Test conditions including contamination concentration, test duration, test temperature and lubricant flow rate were optimized to obtain measureable wear on the land surfaces in a reasonable test time. Results obtained using M50 Nil, P675 and M50 bearings are presented to illustrate the viability of the test procedure.