Hybrid Bearing Technology for Advanced Turbomachinery: Rolling Contact Fatigue Testing

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the basic structure and results to date of a major ARPA funded effort to provide a tribological performance database on ceramic bearing materials and their interaction with standard bearing steels. Program efforts include studies of material physical properties, machining characteristics, and tribological performance. The majority of the testing completed to date focuses on rolling contact fatigue testing of the ceramic materials, including efforts to arrive at optimum approaches to evaluating ceramic/steel hybrid combinations in rolling contact fatigue.