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A Review on Grease Lubrication in Rolling Bearings

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 Tribology Transactions, 52: 470-480, 2009
Copyright
C Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers
ISSN: 1040-2004 print / 1547-397X online
DOI: 10.1080/10402000802687940
A Review on Grease Lubrication in Rolling Bearings
PIET M. LUGT
SKF, Engineering & Research Center
P.O. Box 2350
Nieuwegein 3430 DT, The Netherlands
Grease lubrication is widely applied to rolling bearings. The
consistency of grease prevents it from leaking out of the bear-
ing, makes it easy to use, and will give it good sealing prop-
erties. The same consistency prevents an optimal lubrication
performance. Most of the grease is pushed out of the bearing
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during the initial phase of bearing operation and no longer
actively participates in the lubrication process, leaving only a
limited quantity available, which is stored inside the bearing
geometry and on the bearing shoulders (covers or seals). This
stored volume strongly determines the remaining lubrication
process in the bearing. The distribution of this volume is deter-
mined by the grease flow, which is very complex to understand
due to the strong nonlinear rheology. There is no consensus on
the next phase in the lubrication process. The grease may bleed
and provide oil to the raceway; it may be severely sheared in
the raceway releasing oil; or small fresh quantities of grease
may be sheared off from the volume stored on the shoulder. In
addition, the lubrication process may be dynamic. Grease has
self-healing properties where fresh grease is supplied in case of
film breakdown and self-induced heat development. This ar-
ticle describes the state-of-the-art knowledge on grease lubri-
cation, including grease flow, film formation, film reduction,
dynamic behavior, and grease life.
KEY WORDS
EHL with Greases; Grease Application; Greases; Lubricant
Degradation; Rolling Element Bearings; General; Starvation in
EHL
INTRODUCTION
The main role of grease in a rolling bearing is to provide the
rolling element ring contact with a lubricant to ensure a sepa-
ration of the two such that the bearing has a long life and low
friction. The main advantages of using grease rather than oil
lubrication are the ease of use (it will not easily leak out of
the bearing due to its consistency), the inherent sealing action,
the protection against corrosion, and low friction (provided that
Manuscript received November 2, 2008
Manuscript accepted November 27, 2008
Review led by Andy Jackson
470
the bearing is properly filled). The main disadvantage of using
grease is its limited life. Mechanical work on the grease deteri-
orates its structure and in cases of high temperature, oxidation
takes place (T > 120◦ C) (Ito, et al. (1)). Severe lubricant starva-
tion occurs, causing bearing failures. This implies that the service
life of the bearing may be determined by the life of the grease.
In that case the bearings may need to be re-lubricated occasion-
ally; i.e., filled with fresh grease. The bearing manufacturers have
specified the re-lubrication intervals in their catalogues. These re-
lubrication intervals are calculated from the life of the grease.
Unfortunately, there is no absolute value for this. Even if bear-
ings are running under very well-controlled conditions, such as in
a laboratory situation, there is the usual significant spread in life.
The re-lubrication interval is defined as the L01 of grease life; i.e.,
the time at which 1% of a population of bearings is expected to
have failed (Huiskamp (2)).
The challenge in grease research is threefold primarily.
The first challenge is to develop greases that will give longer life
and/or are able to operate under more severe conditions (extreme
low and high temperature and speed). The second challenge is the
development of predictive tools, such as numerical models or ex-
pert systems. The third challenge is to design bearing systems that
would increase grease life by, for example, optimizing the grease
flow. All these aspects require a fundamental understanding of
the lubrication mechanisms of lubricating greases.
The research efforts in grease lubrication have so far been rel-
atively small. The global business for grease does not allow for
large research programs. The bearing industry has a particular
interest in understanding grease lubrication, though. More than
90% of all rolling element bearings are greased and sealed for life,
effectively making grease a bearing component similar to rolling
elements and seals. In addition, the internal design of the bearing
has an impact on the performance of the grease. This article gives
an overview of the existing knowledge on the various aspects of
grease lubrication and the state-of-the-art models that exist in the
public literature today.
The main research on the lubrication mechanisms has been
done on single contact configurations where the rolling element
ring contact is simulated by a ball on a flat disc. This is gen-
erally allowed for studying EHL (elasto-hydrodynamic lubrica-
tion), where the contact geometry can easily be reduced to this
configuration. The great advantage of this is the possibility to
accurately measure film thickness using optical interferometry
methods. The main drawback is the large difference in timescale
 Grease Lubrication in Rolling Bearings 471

between successive over-rollings and the impossibility to simulate

the true lubricant flow and the feed and loss mechanisms, which
will be described later. Moreover, the large centrifugal forces
acting on the grease in the bearing cannot be simulated in these
instruments. Nevertheless, despite these drawbacks, the observa-
tions using these instruments have contributed significantly to un-
derstanding the lubrication mechanisms in grease lubrication.
Greases are classified primarily on the thickener type. In
rolling bearings, lithium/lithium complex soap and polyurea
greases are mostly used. A description of the various types can be
found in any textbook on lubrication and goes beyond the scope
of this article (e.g., Bartz (3) or Harris (4)).

GREASE PROPERTIES
Grease Structure
Grease is defined as “a solid to semi-fluid product or disper-
sion of a thickening agent in a liquid lubricant. Other ingredients
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imparting special properties may also be included” (NGLI (5)).

The base oil is kept inside the thickener structure by a combi-
nation of Van der Waals and capillary forces (Bauer, et al. (6)).
Interactions between thickener molecules are dipole-dipole in-
cluding hydrogen bonding (Hurley (7)) or ionic and Van der
Waals forces (Forster, et al. (8)). The effectiveness of these forces
depends on how these fibers contact each other. The thickener
fibers vary in length from about 1 to 100 µm and have a length
to diameter ratio of 10 to 100 where this ratio has been corre-
lated with the consistency of the grease for a given concentration
of thickener (Scarlett (9)). It is not obvious how to visualize the
structure of grease. In general, wet samples cannot be used in
a scanning electron microscope. Figure 1 shows the structure of
Fig. 1—SEM photographs of different grease soap structures: (a)
some greases where the oil has been carefully washed away using lithium-12-hydroxy stearate in mineral oil, coarse structure;
a non-polar solvent. Since grease contains 80–90% oil, one may (b) lithium-12-hydroxy stearate in mineral oil, fine structure; (c)
argue that the thickener structure may collapse if the oil is washed lithium-12-hydroxy stearate in ester oil, very fine structure; (d)
modified lithium-12-hydroxy stearate in mineral oil.
out and that such a picture may be misleading. Other visualiza-
tion techniques have been used as well such as a freeze-fracture
technique (Magnin and Piau (10); Shuff and Clarke (11)), where a
low speed and/or high load. The effect on grease life that these
replica is made of a frozen grease sample, which can be observed
additives have is not well understood. According to Gow (16)
in the SEM. Also, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used
some 90% of all lubricant additives destroy the thickener struc-
(Hurley and Cann (12)). Shin, et al. (13) visualized the grease
ture of grease since they are often based on surface-active ma-
flow in a shear field with an optical microscope in phase contrast
terials and this leads to what is commonly called the mayonnaise
mode. They observed very long fibers ranging from 50 to 100 µm,
effect (softening and discoloring). He also mentions that of the re-
which are much longer than those observed with the SEM. An
maining 10%, some 90% do not work. He ascribes this to the fact
environmental SEM may be used but the low contrast between
that the thickener material is almost always very polar (metallic
soap and base oil makes visualization difficult. Salomonsson, et al.
soaps) and that the (also polar) EP additives will adhere to the
(14) have visualized the grease structure using the cryo-TEM
soap structure rather than to the metal surface (Gow (17)). This
technique and visualized naphthenic lithium grease and paraffinic
is in contradiction to the results found by McClintock (18) who
lithium grease by increasing the contrast between soap and oil
tested a number of greases on lubricant life and found an increase
through, e.g., replacing lithium by lithium/cesium soap.
in life. A very promising development is the use of bismuth as an
EP/AW additive because it is nontoxic and shows very good per-
Additives formance (Rohr (19)).
The role of additives in grease has not been explored in Kaperick (20) shows in an evaluation of the “Timken OK
much detail. At high temperatures, the antioxidant additives will Load Test,” in which identical EP additives give a different re-
have the greatest effect. These additives are continuously con- sponse to EP action for different formulated greases and ascribes
sumed during bearing operation and, according to van den Kom- this to a possible impact of mobility towards the surface through
mer (15), totally consumed after 50% of grease life. Extreme chemical interactions or attractive forces. If Gow is right then it
pressure/anti-wear (EP/AW) additives are generally applied for is likely that the impact of EP additives on grease performance
 472 P. M. LUGT
may be measurable through the mechanical and thermal aging of
grease. This direct impact may be primarily on consistency and
bleeding rate.
Non-Newtonian Rheology
A lubricating oil shows non-Newtonian behavior at high shear
rates and pressure. Due to the thickener structure and its interac-
tion with the base oil, grease shows this behavior already at very
low shear rates and ambient pressure. Measurements from low to
high shear rates can be found in Pavlov and Vinogradov (21).
The solid-like behavior, or resistance to flow (or leakage), is
traditionally characterized through the consistency or penetra-
tion, measured using a cone penetrometer (ISO 2137, ASTM
D217), which is translated into an NLGI consistency number. An
alternative is to measure the yield strength on a rheometer, by
means of the computerized evaluation of yield value (CEY; Gow
(22)) or through the “cross-over stress” (Couronné, et al. (23);
Couronné and Vergne (24)). A correlation between yield stress
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and penetration/consistency can be found in Couronné et al. (25).
Generally, this is only determined at room temperature.
It is clear that the grease will be severely worked in the bear-
ing. This applies to the grease that is being churned between the
rolling elements but also applies to the fraction that passed the
EHL contacts where shear rates are O(106 s−1 ). This causes a
rapid change in rheological properties of the grease during the
initial phase of bearing operation. It is therefore relevant to mea-
sure the rheology after working the grease. This can be done in a
rheometer itself, in a grease worker (26), or in a Shell roll tester
(27). The change in consistency loss is quantified by measuring
the mechanical stability of the grease before and after working
the grease.
The yield stress strongly depends on temperature. Measure-
ments for different types of grease can be found in Karis, et al.
(28) or Czarny (29). Karis shows that the yield strength of a
lithium grease may drop from 500 Pa at 20◦ C to 100 Pa at 60◦ C.
As shown by Forster and Kolfenbach (30), greases show visco-
elastic behavior. There are a number of models proposed for low
and high shear rates. The best known are the power law, Rhee-
Eyring, Bingham and Herschel-Bulkley models. A definition of
these models can be found in Yousif (31). These models assume
solid or very high viscous behavior at low shear rates and vis-
cous (with possible shear thinning) at higher shear rates. An ex-
ample can be seen in Fig. 2. In addition to this nonlinear shear
stress-shear rate behavior, grease is thixotropic, meaning that the
measured stress also depends on time. Paszkowski (32) defined
thixotropy as an isothermal decrease in structural (apparent) vis-
cosity during shearing (at both constant and variable shear rates)
followed by an increase in the viscosity and the re-solidification
of the substance once shearing ends. Pavlov and Vinogradov (21)
show creep-like behavior at very low shear (106 s−1 ) until the
yield strength has been reached. As shown by Hurley and Cann
(33), grease rheology approaches that of the base oil at high shear
rates. They also show that mechanical work changes the rheolog-
ical behavior significantly. The grease thickener structure is thus
continuously degrading and is transformed from a Bingham plas-
tic or Herschel-Bulkely material towards a more viscous material
(Mérieux, et al. (34)).
LUBRICATION MECHANISMS
Lubricating Conditions
There is no consensus on the lubrication mechanisms in grease
lubrication. There is an overall agreement though that grease-
lubricated bearings are generally running under starved lubrica-
tion conditions. This has been shown by Poon in 1972 on a disc
machine (Poon (35)) and by Wilson in 1979 (36) in full bearings.
Wilson measured the film thickness in cylindrical and spherical
roller bearings and showed that the lubricant film initially exceeds
the value in case of fully flooded oil lubrication by 20–25%. How-
ever, already after a few hours the film thickness has decreased
below this value. At this point the bearing runs under starved lu-
brication conditions.
Barz (37) measured the film thickness in a cylindrical thrust
bearing as a function of bearing speed. His measurements
show that the film thickness is relatively large at low speed
but decreases with speed up to a speed where the film stays
constant. Wikström and Jacobson (38) measured the electrical
capacity over the bearing contacts (using a method developed
by Heemskerk, et al. (39)) in a grease lubricated spherical roller
bearing and showed that metal-to-metal contact occurs very
regularly, meaning that the films are very thin, certainly smaller
than the values that could be expected assuming fully flooded
conditions.
As a rule of thumb approximately 30% of the free volume of
the bearing should be initially filled with grease. It will be clear
that this is much more than required to provide the bearing with
a (fully flooded) lubricant film. In the beginning, excessive grease
churning, or grease flow, takes place, which is responsible for the
high temperature peak caused by the churning component of the
friction torque. The initially thick lubricant films in the beginning
indicate that at least during this initial bearing operation thick-
ener enters the contact.
Single contact measurements by Åström, et al. (40),
Williamson, et al. (41), and Kaneta, et al. (42), using a scoop to
ensure fully flooded conditions, have shown that the film thick-
ness is indeed higher than the fully flooded oil film thickness. The
optical setup also made it possible to show that grease thickener
lumps were entering the contact. The literature does not reveal if
this is really restricted to the initial phase of bearing operation. It
might be that this is very pronounced in the beginning and dimin-
ishes slowly over time.
The most widely used model to describe grease lubrication
is that the grease acts as an oil reservoir where the oil is slowly
released into the running track (Booser and Wilcock (43)). Lu-
brication guidelines are then formulated according to this ability
to bleed (Baker (44)). There is definitely no consensus here. Al-
ready in 1967 Scarlett (9) referred to an alternative mechanism of
a high viscosity layer retained within the rolling track.
By means of FTIR (Fourier transform infra-red) spec-
troscopy, Cann and Spikes (45) and Cann, et al. (46) observed
thickener layers on the surfaces of a ball-on-disc machine. They
proposed a model where it is assumed that the surfaces are cov-
ered by a thin layer of soap and where the film is formed by base
oil thickened with broken thickener fibres. Cann and Hurley (47)
conclude from their experimental work that this is the result of
 Grease Lubrication in Rolling Bearings
3000
2500
2000
shear stress (Pa)
1500
1000
500
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0
0 500
Fig. 2—Shear stress versus shear rate curve for lithium soap bearing grease at room temperature. Measurements and fit using a power law model.
a progressive destruction of the soap matrix by over-rolling. This
destruction releases oil, which provides free lubricant for replen-
ishment. This is an interesting hypothesis: oil is not released by
bleeding but by the destruction of the thickener. Farcas and Gafi-
tanu (48) confirmed this.
There has been very little work published on grease analysis in
full bearings. Cann, et al. (49), (50) have investigated the chemical
composition in ball bearings. They investigated the grease in R0F
(6204-type ball bearings) and R2F tests (6209-type ball bearings).
Surprisingly, the differences between R0F and R2F tests are not
only related to bearing size. For the R2F test they write that ini-
tially, grease is over-rolled, releasing free oil through degrada-
tion. Simultaneously, grease is pushed to the side, onto the seals.
In the next phase, grease is sheared from the seal into the race-
way where it again degrades into an oil-like lubricant (although
patches of grease were also found). This lubricant moves onto the
balls into the pocket. In the cage pockets oil was found.
Significant amounts of free oil could not be found in the R0F,
though. This means that in the R0F test configuration, grease is
sheared into the contacts and into the cage pockets where it is
over-rolled and sheared and where oil is released. So for this test,
the grease on the shields did not serve as an oil reservoir. This
agrees with the mechanism suggested in Cann and Spikes (45)
and Cann, et al. (46). Scarlett (9) described the flow of grease
through a ball bearing with an inner ring guided brass machined
cage and mentions the formation of “pads” of grease adhering
to the cage bore (under the cage bars). These pads had a higher
consistency with a higher soap concentration than the original
grease. Scarlett explicitly states that this is due to oil loss (bleed-
ing), which occurs during the first 100 h operation and, accord-
ing to him, does not contribute to feeding oil to the bearing after
473
1000 1500 2000 2500
shear rate (1/s)
this. This statement is not based on any experiments in this article
though. Scarlett describes tests where grease has been removed
from the covers after the initial churning period. In that case he
found premature bearing wear. This means that the grease on
the covers plays an important role in lubrication after the ini-
tial phase. He investigated this role further by performing ex-
periments using a tracer in the base oil of various greases on
the covers only. Surprisingly, he found no flow of oil or grease
from the covers into the bearing. He has done his tests with var-
ious grease types. A similar conclusion is made by Milne, et al.
(51). Scarlett concludes that, after the churning period, there is no
grease or base oil flow from the housing recesses into the bearing
and postulates that its function is to form a closely fitting seal to
prevent escape of essential lubricant from the bearing.
Lansdown and Gupta (52) write that there is considerable ev-
idence that in ball bearings the whole of the grease is involved in
the lubrication process, so not only the bled base oil. They have
various arguments for this, the most important being that the
performance in ball bearings is comparable between the case of
grease plating (technique where grease is coated on to the bear-
ing surfaces) and the case of conventional grease lubrication. In
their analysis on ball bearings they also write that often grease ad-
jacent to the races is softer and has a higher oil content than the
grease near to the outside of the bearing covers. Unfortunately,
these statements are not illustrated with any examples, proof, or
references.
Full bearing tests (spherical roller bearings) from Wikström
and Höglund (53) using both grease and base oil only showed
equal friction torque. This shows the importance of the base oil.
They claim that these tests confirm the theorem from Booser and
Wilcock (43) where grease releases oil, which then lubricates the
 474
bearing. A similar conclusion is drawn by Dalmaz and Nantua
(54), who tested six lithium greases, varying base oil viscosity,
thickener structure, and concentration on both angular contact
ball bearing (ACBB) life test rigs and on a single contact film
thickness instrument. Similar to Hurley (7), they report that the
initial film thickness is proportional to the thickener concentra-
tion and larger than those of the base oil. However, their bearing
life tests show that bearing life is related to base oil viscosity only
and not to thickener type. This suggests that the grease film may
last only very briefly and the film will be formed by base oil only
for the main part of the life of the bearing.
Also, Mas and Magnin (55) have investigated grease before
and after running in full bearings.
They tested tapered roller bearings and found an increased
viscosity of the grease and reduced oil content under the cages.
This implies that grease bleeding occurs from grease located un-
der the cage bar. They also show by means of SEM the destruc-
tion of fibers in the raceway confirming the Cann et al. theorem
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(Cann Spikes (45); Cann, et al. (46)) again.
Film Thickness and Starvation
As mentioned previously, the initial film thickness is higher
than can be expected based on the base oil viscosity only. The
initial film must therefore consist of (sheared, degraded) grease.
After some time, starvation occurs where the film is reduced in
thickness. The initial film thickness has been modeled by Dal-
maz and Nantua (54) and Hurley (7) by assuming that the initial
film thickness is proportional to the thickener concentration and
larger than that of the base oil. Hurley developed an empirical
formula for this.
Others have used the grease rheology as input for a model.
Jonkisz and Krzemiski-Fredihave (56) and Kauzlarich and
Greenwood (57) used a Herschel-Bulkley model. Bordenet, et
al. (58) used a “four parameter rheology model,” which is quite
similar to the Herschel-Bulkley rheology model. They all found
slightly higher values of the film thickness compared to those cal-
culated using the base oil viscosity only.
Yang and Qian (59) used a Bingham rheology model to
predict the film thickness. They showed that the film thickness,
again for fully flooded conditions, can be calculated by using
the conventional EHL formula whereby the viscosity of the
grease at high shear rates should be used, rather than the oil
viscosity. Aihara and Dowson (60) performed an experimental
study of the factors affecting film thickness in a grease lubricated
two-disc machine. They suggest that the grease lubricated film
thickness can be estimated by taking 70% of the value of the
fully flooded film thickness using the base oil viscosity. This is
in accordance to Saman’s (61) theory, who assumed that the
contacts will ultimately be so starved that the inlet meniscus will
be so close to the Hertzian contact that zero-reverse flow can be
assumed. Theoretically this will lead to a reduction to 71% of
the fully flooded film thickness. The reduction on film thickness
after the initial phase need not totally be ascribed to classical
starvation.
Kauzlarich and Greenwood (56) show that shear degradation
of the grease also leads to a reduction of film thickness in time.
P. M. LUGT
Starvation models for oil-lubricated contacts have been devel-
oped by Chevalier, et al. (62), later refined by Damiens, et al.
(63) and Damiens (64). In these models, a given layer of oil with a
given thickness is supplied to the EHL contact. The main problem
here is the input layer thickness, which is not known for a bearing
with multiple contacts. This layer needs to be calculated based
on the nonuniform layer, which leaves the preceding EHL con-
tact and the feed and loss of lubricant in-between over-rollings
(or rather in-between two rolling elements).
The first problem is the possible occurrence of replenishment
between two consecutive rolling elements. Van Zoelen, et al. (65)
has recently developed an innovative approach to this by assum-
ing that starvation is caused by side flow in the EHL contacts only
and that track replenishment can be neglected. They showed that
the starved film thickness increases with increasing load caused
by increasing viscosity inside the contact and therefore a reduced
side flow.
Track Replenishment
Replenishment has been the topic of many articles starting
with the model from Chiu (66). Jacod, et al. (67) showed that
surface tension-driven replenishment of the running track is too
slow to give any significant effect and shows that only capillary
forces may have some effect. Recently, Gershuni, et al. (68) in-
vestigated the impact of bearing centrifugal forces on the lay-
ers formed behind a contact of cylindrical roller bearings. They
showed that these forces increased the replenishment rates enor-
mously in case of outer ring rotation. In case of inner ring rota-
tion, replenishment is seriously retarded by the centrifugal action
on the layers. They showed that replenishment times, even in the
absence of centrifugal forces, were too long to have any effect.
Farcas and Gafitanu (48) developed a model based on the wetting
properties of the lubricant only. They calculated the critical speed
at which lubricant droplets are no longer able to adhere to the
surface due to the centrifugal forces. They have validated their
model using electrical resistance measurements over the bearing
contacts.
Mérieux, et al. (34) show that grease shear degradation may
also lead to replenishment and film growth. They assume that the
grease next to the contact is continuously sheared and therefore
degrades. The grease will ultimately lose its grease-like behavior
and will then behave as an oil, replenishing the contact.
Van Zoelen, et al. (69) investigated the impact of the tangen-
tial component of the centrifugal forces on the thin-film flow on
tapered and spherical roller bearing inner rings. They showed
a significant effect here, which should certainly be incorporated
in any replenishment model. The cage design also plays a role
in the prediction of the film thickness and track replenishment.
Damiens, et al. (70) have done film thickness measurements on a
single contact where they mounted a single cage pocket, cut from
a full cage, on their ball-on-disc device and where they were able
to vary the clearance between cage and ball from 0.05 to 0.5 mm.
They show that, in case of oil lubrication, the film thickness de-
creases with decreasing clearance between cage and ball. They
ascribe this to a “scraping” effect. However, in the case of grease
lubrication they found an inverse effect—the film thickness was
 Grease Lubrication in Rolling Bearings
increasing with decreasing cage clearance. They concluded that a
cage probably redistributes the grease in the cage/ball contacts,
preventing starvation. As they mention in their article, both ef-
fects, redistribution and scraping, may take place in a bearing.
Also, in the case of grease lubrication scraping may dominate if
the clearance is too small.
In addition to scraping/redistribution, the cage may also op-
erate at much higher temperature than the other bearing com-
ponents, affecting the flow but also the possibilities to maintain
a grease reservoir under the cage. The yield stress is strongly
dependent on temperature (Czarny (29)). Generally, for practi-
cal reasons, the bearing temperature is measured on the outer
ring and the cage temperature is never reported. Joshi, et al.
(71) have performed temperature measurements on the cage
of a tapered roller bearing (TRB). The bearing was running in
an oil bath (75% fill). They recorded the temperature of both
housing and cage and showed that the cage temperature re-
sponse is much higher to changes in lubrication than the housing
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temperature.
In addition to lubricant replenishment, lubricant is supplied
by bleeding from the grease, either from under the cage or
from the grease attached to the covers. No grease bleeding
models have been published as yet. Then, finally, evaporation
(Komatsuzaki, et al. (72)) and oxidation need to be taken into
account, which will reduce the layer in between the rolling el-
ements again. At low temperatures, these effects may be ne-
glected, though.
Dynamic Behavior
In 1996, Mas and Magnin (55) speculated on the release of
fresh “grease” after heat development caused by film breakdown.
They wrote that a grease lubricated bearing will fail as soon as this
can no longer take place. This would imply a dynamic behavior
of subsequent film breakdown and repair. Such dynamic behavior
can be observed in the measurements of Wikström and Jacobson
(38), who tested spherical roller bearings, measuring the electri-
cal capacitance across the contacts. Unlike Barz (37) and Wilson
(36), who used a similar technique, they did not translate this sig-
nal to film thickness values. Their intent was only to illustrate the
occurrence of metal-to-metal contact. Their measurements show
that the capacitance signal was not constant but had a dynamic
character.
Cann and Lubrecht (73) illustrated this in their ball-on-disc
machine and showed that severe starvation can be “repaired” by
adding additional lubricant to the contact. Very pronounced dy-
namic behavior was observed in 2008 in Lugt, et al. (74), where
temperature signals from cylindrical roller bearing tests were an-
alyzed and where it was shown that these signals show “events”
characterized by periods where the temperature rises significantly
and falls back to the steady state. Moreover, additional analysis of
the electrical resistance measurements proved that these events
are caused by film breakdown followed by replenishment and that
grease lubrication exhibits “deterministic chaotic” behavior. This
had not been observed so explicitly before for two reasons. In the
first place, a sufficiently long test time is required to measure this,
which is usually not applied because of high costs for testing or
lack of patience. The second reason is that most grease life tests
475
are done under controlled temperature. It is expected, though,
that the temperature controllers will show the same dynamics as
observed in the temperature signal obtained in tests where bear-
ings are running under self-induced temperature conditions.
Grease Flow
During the churning phase in a grease lubricated bearing,
most of the grease is pushed onto the covers/seals/shields of the
bearing arrangement and some grease stays inside the bearing
where some of it may be mobile and continuously flow and part
of it will form patches of grease that can be found under the cage.
The amount of grease that can be stored here obviously depends
on the cage geometry and the flow properties of the grease; i.e.,
its rheological behavior. Also, in case of vertical shaft arrange-
ments or in case of vibrations, the amount of grease available
for lubrication depends on these properties. Under these circum-
stances generally a high consistency grease is used to prevent
grease falling back into the track again and to maintain a lubri-
cant reservoir adjacent to the rolling elements row(s).
According to Cobb (75), there is no difference in grease per-
formance (start-up torque, temperature, leakage through seals) if
ball bearings are filled from one side only, provided the same total
amount of grease is placed in the bearing under either placement
condition. This indicates that most of the grease in the bearing
participates in the flow.
The flow of grease inside the bearing is very complex. Visu-
alization techniques have shown flow patterns, (9). However, a
quantitative prediction and therefore prediction of the formation
of the grease reservoir is not possible today. There are several
reasons for this. The first reason is the complex rheology of the
grease. In addition, thickener-oil separation could occur with en-
trapped air. A multi-phase flow may occur, which is most difficult
to describe using today’s computational tools. Moreover, there is
an enormous variation in scale and shear rates inside the bear-
ing configuration. Between the rolling elements, clearly churning
takes place with relatively low shear rates. In the inlet of the con-
tacts, phase separation may occur (similar to what happens with
water in emulsions in the inlet of EHL contacts), a jet flow may
occur, or even droplets may be formed (Larsson, et al. (76)).
Wall Slip
The flow is not only determined by the rheological properties
of the grease. The bearing (cage) material and roughness are also
important. The roughness of cage material and type of cage mate-
rial are important due to the occurrence of wall slip. This wall slip
effect has been studied in rheometers and in pipe flows. Forster,
et al. (8) claim that the flow close to the wall is restricted by the
breaking fiber contacts. They report that at high slip rates inter-
nal slip in the fibers would be responsible for wall slip. Bramhall
and Hutton (77) ascribe wall slip to a lower concentration of the
thickener particles at the wall, so slip over a layer of oil. Czarny’s
experiments (Czarny (78); Czarny and Moes (79)) show that the
wall slip depends on the wall material and on the thickener type.
Since this does not apply to oil lubrication, he claims that the for-
mation of a wall layer is a result of interactions between the par-
ticles of the grease thickener and the wall material resulting in a
concentration gradient of thickener close to the wall. He based
 476 P. M. LUGT

this explanation not only on his own work but also on the ex-
perimental work of Vinogradov, et al. (80). Delgado, et al. (81)
showed the impact of roughness on wall slip though measure-
ments of pressure drop and flow through pipes. They showed that
smoothening of the wall gave a significant reduction in pressure
drop. This can only be ascribed to wall slip again. The wall slip
phenomenon is not only of importance to understand grease flow,
it may also be of importance for the ability of the bearing to main-
tain its grease reservoir after the churning phase. In case of line
contact bearings grease may slide away from under the cage bar
into the track.
GREASE LIFE
Existing Grease Life Models
Grease life models have been developed mainly by the bear-
ing manufacturers. The scientific developments are still very lim-
ited and there is still much to be done for the development of a
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deep-groove ball bearings by means of grease performance fac-
tors (GPFs), which is shown in Fig. 4. The GPF is defined as the
ratio of real life and the grease life predicted by his model. In or-
der to determine its values grease life tests are necessary, such as
the R0F/R0F+ test.
As mentioned above, the initial filling rate is important. Gen-
erally, the models apply to an optimally filled bearing. To the au-
thor’s knowledge only Farcas and Gafitanu (49) have included
the initial volume of grease inside the bearing as a parameter in
a life mode. Their empirical model is based on a limited data set,
though.
The effects of shock loads and vibrations are also often incor-
porated through penalty factors.
These effects cause grease lumps from the covers/seals to fall
into the bearing, resulting in high temperatures and loss of grease
reservoir. The same applies to the effect of air flow through the
bearing. Lubricant droplets formed behind the rolling elements
(Larsson, et al. (76)) will be dragged out of the bearing and will no

true physical grease life model. Therefore, all published grease longer replenish the inlet of the next rolling element. Air flow will
life models are empirical; i.e., based on grease life testing. Such also have an impact on the evaporation rate, especially at higher
tests are done on R0F, R2F (machine described in DIN 51806) or temperatures. Lansdown and Gupta (52) show that evaporation
FE9 machines (described in DIN 51562). It is generally believed of base oil not only happens on thin films bled out of the grease
that grease life follows the Weibull probability density distribu- but may even happen to oil contained in grease directly.
tion and therefore a sufficiently large number of bearings need
to be tested. The main parameters determining grease life are Reliability
ndm, (the product of rotational speed and mean bearing diam- Bearing life is usually expressed in L10 life (10% of the pop-
eter) and temperature. This ndm parameter translates into a pe- ulation will have failed), and grease life is usually expressed in
ripheral speed. All models assume a temperature-Arrhenius be- L50 life (50% of the population will have failed). This is the re-
havior. Ito, et al. (1) showed this in their extensive grease life test sult of test practice where grease life is measured using a lim-
program for small deep-groove ball bearings at temperatures ex- ited number of tests representing a large quantity of bearings. A
ceeding 100◦ C. The effect of load is generally less pronounced, two-parameter Weibull distribution is assumed, since a minimum
which may be due to the weak relation between load and EHL
film thickness.
Deep-groove ball bearings (DGBBs) are “easier” to lubricate
than other bearing types. This is related to more pronounced re-
plenishment (Damiens, et al. (63)) or is sometimes ascribed to
ball spin. Most models are normalized for this bearing type and
correction factors are applied for the other bearing types. In ad-
dition to the starvation effect, some bearings, such as tapered and
spherical roller bearings, and also angular contact ball bearings,
show an inherent pumping effect, which reduces the available lu-
bricant in the running track significantly (1) van Zoelen, et al.
(82).
The models are only applicable if the bearing operates in the
temperature domain for which the grease has been designed. The
lower temperature limit is usually determined by the bleeding
properties of the grease or the base oil’s pour point, whereas the
high temperature limit is determined by the dropping point of the
grease; i.e., the point at which a droplet falls from a standardized
cup. This point is accepted as the maximum temperature at which
the grease can be exposed without losing its structure. For safety
reasons this is reduced by 15–20◦ C.
The models can be found in the catalogues of the various bear-
ing manufacturers and are applicable for a certain type of grease
despite the fact that significant quality differences can be found. Fig. 3—Balance between feed and loss of lubricant ultimately determin-
Huiskamp (2) incorporated the grease quality into his model for ing the lubricant film thickness (Wikström and Jacobson (38) ).
 Grease Lubrication in Rolling Bearings 477
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Fig. 4—Grease life model from Huiskamp (2) including grease performance factors.

of guaranteed life, requiring a third parameter, is doubtful for
grease lubrication. The distribution can be obtained from the
R0F test where the life of five pairs of bearings is evaluated
using the “sudden death principle.” Here a pair of bearings is
stopped as soon as one bearing has failed. So the test will give
five failed and five suspended bearings. Weibull statistics are
applied to these results, giving the full failure distribution and
corresponding confidence interval. As illustrated in Fig. 5, by
taking L50, the smallest confidence interval is obtained (An-
dersson (83)). The confidence intervals—i.e., the precision of
life estimates—for L1 are very large, which makes it difficult
to discriminate between test results. Grease life is therefore

Fig. 5—Failure distribution for a grease life test using the R0F test rig using a population of 10 grease failures.
 478 P. M. LUGT
generally measured through the L50 value. Re-lubrication in-
tervals are derived from that using a fixed Weibull slope. ROF
testing gives an average Weibull slope β = 2.3, which gives
L10 ≈ 2.7L01 and L50 ≈ 5L01. Note that for ball bearing fatigue
life, typically β = 1.1 (Harris (4); Lundberg and Palmgren (84);
Ioannides, et al. (85)). This means that the spread in grease life is
less pronounced than that in bearing life.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The various hypotheses on the mechanisms of grease lubrica-
tion, all based on observations/measurements, indicate that there
may be no unique mechanism. As an example, at low tempera-
tures oxidation and evaporation will not give a significant con-
tribution to “grease aging.” At high temperatures oxidation will
dominate. Some metals catalyze oxidation (brass cages!). This
may be one explanation why there is no consensus on the mecha-
nism. It is certain that initial filling plays a major role. Too much
grease leads to excessive churning, high temperatures, and se-
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vere grease degradation. If the bearing is properly filled, two
phases can be distinguished; i.e., a churning phase where exces-
sive grease will be pushed to the shoulders of the bearing onto
the seals/covers. This process is determined by the flow proper-
ties of the grease (rheology). Prediction of flow is very complex
due to the nonlinear grease rheology and the two/three phases
involved (thickener, oil, air).
The remaining grease inside the bearing will be over-rolled,
where the thickener structure will be broken down, releasing
oil, and where the thickener material could form a thin layer
(Cann and Spikes (45); Cann, et al. (46)) or a high viscous layer
(Scarlett (9)). After this phase the “bleeding” phase takes place.
This phase is characterized by starvation. The lubricant film thick-
ness is initially larger than calculated using the base oil viscosity.
Side flow reduces the film thickness. Electrical resistance mea-
surements in full bearings confirm the occurrence of starvation.
The grease reservoir may be formed by grease under the cage
(Scarlett (9)) and/or on the bearing shoulders (Cann, et al. (49)).
However, there are also hypotheses that the bearing simply runs
on the initial layer throughout its life-time and will not be replen-
ished at all Scarlett (9). Scarlett (9) states that the grease on the
shoulders plays a major role in providing a long grease life. He
ascribes its role to provide an excellent sealing. Such sealing may
indeed prevent side flow and reduce starvation. This would also
explain why Lansdown and Gupta (52) found an increase in oil
content of grease close to the raceway. At least for line contact
bearings it has been clearly proven that grease located under the
cage bars is bleeding oil (Mas and Magnin (55)). It is not clear,
though, to what extent this bleeding contributes really. The 100 h
that Scarlett mentions is very short.
Prediction of film thickness in grease lubricated bearings is
very complex. The film is a result of feed and loss mechanisms
where bleeding, or grease creep flow, is the feed mechanism
and where side flow (starvation), oxidation, polymerization, and
evaporation are the loss mechanisms (Figure 4, Wikström and Ja-
cobson (38)). Side flow may be hindered by the excellent sealing
from grease located on the shoulders of the bearing. For some
bearing types an additional loss mechanism is formed by pump-
ing, which takes place due to the tangential component of the
centrifugal forces on roller and rings (van Zoelen, et al. (65); van
Zoelen, et al. (69)).
At low shear rates grease creeps, so it may be that grease very
slowly flows into the track.
An additional complexity is the dynamic behavior of grease
lubrication. The grease lubricated bearing shows an inherent
“self-healing” mechanism where replenishment may happen due
to film breakdown resulting in metal-to-metal contact, local heat
development, and release of grease into the raceways (Mas and
Magnin (55); Cann and Lubrecht (73); Lugt, et al. (74)). This
means that the life of the grease in bearings cannot easily be pre-
dicted based on film thickness calculations only.
Ultimately, knowledge on multi-phase flow, nonlinear rheol-
ogy, EHL theory, and chemistry need to be combined to develop
predictive models for grease lubrication in rolling bearings.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to thank Prof. E. Ioannides, Technical
Director Product R&D for SKF, for his kind permission to pub-
lish this article.
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 480 P. M. LUGT
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