Fretting in Wind Power Pitch Bearings:

Micro-Slip Experiments and Bearing Test

Rig Design

Román de la Presilla

Master of Science Thesis TRITA-ITM-EX.2020:186

KTH Industrial Engineering and Management
Machine Design
SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM
 Examensarbete TRITA-ITM-EX.2020:186

Fretting i lager till vindturbinsblad:

mikroglidningsexperiment och konstruktion av en
lagerprovningsrigg

Román de la Presilla
Romandlp@kth.se

Godkänt Examinator Handledare

2020 – 05 – 27 Ulf Sellgren Sergei Glavatskih
ulfs@md.kth.se segla@kth.se
Uppdragsgivare Kontaktperson
Axel Christiernsson Johan Leckner
International AB johan.leckner@axelch.com

Sammanfattning
Vindkraft är idag det snabbast växande området för grön elproduktion i Europa och står med 100 000
installerade turbiner för 15% av den totala elförsörjningen. Denna otroliga utvecklingen har berott på
en massiv teknologisk insats som måste fortsätta. För att nå Europakommissionens miljömål för 2050
måste expansionen av grön elproduktion och vindkraft till och med trappas upp.

Nyligen har en mer aktiv individuell reglering av rotorbladen, vilket möjliggör att bladen kan styras
in- och ut ur vinden, visat sig kunna reducera lasterna på blad och andra komponenter avsevärt, vilket
därmed möjliggör stora kostnadsreduceringar.

Dessa justeringar möjliggörs genom att rotorbladen ansluter hubben via ett rotorbladslager. Dessa nya
lastreducerande reglerstrategier tvingar dock lagren att arbeta under högre belastning jämfört med
traditionell reglering av rotorbladens lutningsvinkel. Det här sker genom mer frekvent positionering
och ofta som små oscillerande rörelser, vilket leder till en högre risk för slitage på rotorbladslagren,
som i sin tur kan leda till förlust av rotorbladsregleringen. När så sker kan inte längre en säker reglering
av turbinen garanteras och katastrofala fel är möjliga, så som förlust av rotorblad.

Det här projektet avser att utarbeta en design för en lagerprovningsrigg som kan användas för att testa
rullager med kontaktvillkor som efterliknar de som återfinns i rotorbladslagren. Ett nytt koncept,m
som är baserat på en ramlös motor, presenteras. Konceptet avser att förhindra onödigt slitage hos
testriggens motorlager och förbättra de dynamiska egenskaperna för en given motorkapacitet. Projektet
innefattar även en studie av friktionsbeteendet hos olika smörjmedel under små upprepande
tangentiella rörelser, som utförts med en befintlig testrigg på KTH.

Sökord: Fretting, Rotorbladslager, Smörjning

1
2
 Master of Science Thesis TRITA-ITM-EX.2020:186

Fretting in Wind Power Pitch Bearings: Micro-Slip

Experiments and Bearing Test Rig Design

Román de la Presilla
Romandlp@kth.se

Approved Examiner Supervisor

2020 – 05 – 27 Ulf Sellgren Sergei Glavatskih
ulfs@md.kth.se segla@kth.se
Commissioner Contact person
Axel Christiernsson Johan Leckner
International AB johan.leckner@axelch.com

Abstract
Wind power is the fastest-growing form of green energy production in Europe, today accounting
for 15% of the total power demand with 100.000 turbines installed. This tremendous development
relied on a massive technological undertaking that must be continued, and even accelerated in
order to meet the European Commission’s environmental goals for 2050. Currently, more active
individual control of the rotor blades, turning the blade into and out of the wind, has proven its
ability to reduce structural loads on the blades and other components significantly, therefore
paving the road towards strong cost reductions. To allow for such adjustment, the rotor blades are
connected to the rotor hub via pitch bearings. However, these new structural load reduction control
strategies force the pitch bearings into a much more demanding operation condition. More frequent
positioning activity and often in the form of smaller oscillating motions, when compared to
traditional pitch control. This leading to an increased risk of wear damage of the pitch bearing that
could fully incapacitate the blade control. At which point the safe regulation of the turbine can no
longer be guaranteed and catastrophic failure, such as the loss of a rotor blade, is possible.

This project pertains to the design a bearing test rig that can be used to test rolling element bearings
with contact conditions that emulate those found in pitch bearings. A novel frameless motor-driven
concept is proposed. The concept is aimed towards preventing unnecessary damage of non-test
bearings and improving the dynamic performance of the test rig for a given motor capacity. One
further objective of the project involved using an existing KTH single contact test rig to study the
friction behavior of different lubricants when minute reciprocal tangential displacements are
imposed.

Keywords: Fretting, Pitch Bearing, Lubrication.

3
4
 FOREWORD

I extend my most sincere gratitude to both my academic supervisor Professor Sergei Glavatskih
and my industrial supervisor Dr. Johan Leckner. The advice, feedback, perspective and passion
you shared with me before and during the project were priceless. I also want to express tremendous
gratitude towards the professors at Machine Design Department, for diligently sharing your
knowledge and experience during these last two years. I am also grateful to Professor Stefan
Bjorklund and Staffan Qvarnström for generously taking the time to think out loud with me.
Additionally, I would like to thank Tomas Östberg for his support in constructing components
used in the experimental set up and to Fabian Schwack for lending his uniquely relevant experience
whenever it was needed. To my family, for their unrelenting support and guidance, I express
profound gratitude.

Finally, Sasha. Thank you for being my center.

Román de la Presilla

Stockholm, May and 2020

5
6
 NOMENCLATURE

Notations
Symbol Description
A Peak to peak amplitude of imposed displacement.
Ad Imposed displacement amplitude
As Sliding amplitude
D Hertzian contact diameter
r’ Radius of slip region
r Hertzian contact radius
s Slip Ratio
Sc Test rig and contact stiffness
Q Tangential Load
W Normal Load
δ Slip Index
μ Friction Coefficient

Abbreviations
CAD Computer Aided Design
IPC Individual Pitch Control
RCFM Running Condition Fretting Map
MRFM Material Response Fretting Map
PSR Partial Slip Regime
MR Mixed Regime
GSR Gross Sliding Regime

7
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD............................................................................................................................................................... 5
NOMENCLATURE .................................................................................................................................................... 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................ 8
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 10
1.1 BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM DEFINITION ........................................................................................................ 10
1.2 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................... 13
1.3 DELIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................................................. 13
1.4 METHODS .......................................................................................................................................................... 14
2 FRAME OF REFERENCE .................................................................................................................................. 15
2.1 AN INTRODUCTION TO FRETTING DAMAGE ....................................................................................................... 15
2.2 FRETTING IN HERTZIAN CONTACTS ................................................................................................................... 18
Micro-Slip in a Hertzian contact subjected to a tangential load ....................................................................... 18
Other mechanisms that result in Micro-slip ...................................................................................................... 20
2.3 FRETTING MAPS AND FRETTING REGIMES .......................................................................................................... 21
2.4 FRETTING WEAR ............................................................................................................................................... 23
2.5 FRETTING IN LUBRICATED CONDITIONS ............................................................................................................ 29
Oil Lubrication .................................................................................................................................................. 29
Grease Lubrication ............................................................................................................................................ 31
2.6 FRETTING EXPERIMENTS: TEST RIGS ................................................................................................................ 33
2.7 PITCH BEARINGS IN WIND POWER: THE PERSPECTIVE OF FRETTING DAMAGE TESTING ................................... 40
3 IMPLEMENTATION .......................................................................................................................................... 43
DESIGN PROCESS: BEARING FRETTING TEST RIG .................................................................................................... 43
Development of Design Requirements and Specifications ................................................................................. 43
Functional Breakdown ...................................................................................................................................... 44
Concept Generation........................................................................................................................................... 44
Motor Selection ................................................................................................................................................. 49
MICRO-SLIP TESTING .............................................................................................................................................. 50
4 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................................... 52
BEARING TEST RIG: RESULTING DESIGN ................................................................................................................ 52
MICRO-SLIP TEST RESULTS .................................................................................................................................... 58
5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 67
5.1 DISCUSSION....................................................................................................................................................... 68
BEARING FRETTING TEST RIG DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 68
Frameless Concept ............................................................................................................................................ 68
Open Design ...................................................................................................................................................... 68
Testing in Harsh Environmental Conditions ..................................................................................................... 69
Scaling ............................................................................................................................................................... 69
MICRO-SLIP TESTING DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................... 69
Role of the Thickener Agent and Base Oil Viscosity.......................................................................................... 69
5.2 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................................... 70
BEARING TEST RIG CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................................... 70
MICRO-SLIP TESTING CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................... 71
6 RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE WORK ............................................................................................. 72
BEARING TEST RIG RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE WORK ............................................................................... 72
MICRO-SLIP TESTING RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE WORK............................................................................ 72
7 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................................... 74
APPENDIX A: PROJECT GANTT CHART & DETAIL BREAKDOWN TABLE .......................................... 82
APPENDIX B: PROJECT RISK ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 86

8
 TABLE OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1.1: OFFSHORE WIND TURBINE DURING DEPLOYMENT PROCESS. ........................................................................................... 11

FIGURE 1.2: WIND TURBINE CUTAWAY SCHEMATIC. ........................................................................................................................ 11
FIGURE 2.1: FRETTING CORROSION OF BEARING RING AND SEAT (TRIBOLOGY-ABC.COM). .................................................................15
FIGURE 2.2: FRETTING DAMAGED THRUST BEARING RACEWAY. ......................................................................................................... 17
FIGURE 2.3: NORMAL AND TANGENTIAL STRESS FIELDS FOR AN ELASTIC CONTACT WITH AND WITHOUT SLIP (EXTRACTED FROM [12])
.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 19
FIGURE 2.4 SURFACE STRESS DISTRIBUTION IN AN ELASTO-PLASTIC FRETTING CONTACT [12]. ........................................................... 20
FIGURE 2.5 REYNOLDS SLIP. ............................................................................................................................................................. 20
FIGURE 2.6: FOUR SIMPLE FRETTING MOTION MODES FOR BALL-ON-FLAT CONTACT [37]. ...................................................................21
FIGURE 2.7: FRETTING MAP AND FRETTING LOOPS (CROSS SECTIONS). ............................................................................................... 22
FIGURE 2.8: RUNNING CONDITION FRETTING MAPS & MATERIAL RESPONSE FRETTING MAPS. ......................................................... 23
FIGURE 2.9: FRETTING WEAR RATE AS A FUNCTION OF DISPLACEMENT (A) AND FRETTING REGIME AS A FUNCTION OF NORMAL LOAD
AND DISPLACEMENT [38]. ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
FIGURE 2.10: TYPICAL FRETTING LOOP DIAGRAM [48]. .................................................................................................................... 26
FIGURE 2.11: AMPLITUDE RATIO. A=OSCILLATION AMPLITUDE; D=HERTZIAN CONTACT DIAMETER [83] .......................................... 30
FIGURE 2.12: FRETTING WEAR IN RECIPROCAL SLIDING OF BALL ON FLAT FOR VARYING VISCOSITY AND AMPLITUDE RATIO,
MARUYAMA, ET AL. [83]. ....................................................................................................................................................... 30
FIGURE 2.13: THICKENER LAYER DIAGRAM [95]................................................................................................................................ 32
FIGURE 2.14: FALEX FRETTING WEAR TESTER, AS PRESENTED IN [104]. ........................................................................................... 33
FIGURE 2.15 SRV MACHINE AND DIAGRAM [105] ............................................................................................................................. 34
FIGURE 2.16: FRETTING TEST RIG WITH MAGNETORESTRICTIVE ACTUATION AND MULTIPLE CONTACT CONFIGURATIONS [106]. .......... 35
FIGURE 2.17: FRETTING TEST RIG WITH ELECTRIC SHAKER ACTUATION THROUGH A LEVER ARM [107]. .............................................. 35
FIGURE 2.18: FRETTING TEST RIG FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE TESTING [108]. ........................................................................................ 36
FIGURE 2.19: LARGE SCALE PITCH AND YAW BEARING TEST RIG [109]. .............................................................................................. 36
FIGURE 2.20: BEARING FRETTING TEST RIG AS SHOWN IN MARUYAMA, ET AL. [95]. .......................................................................... 37
FIGURE 2.21:BEARING FRETTING TEST RIG USED BY SCHWACK IN [24 & 97] ..................................................................................... 38
FIGURE 2.22:SCHEMATIC OF BEARING FRETTING TEST RIG USED BY SCHWACK IN [24 & 97].............................................................. 38
FIGURE 2.23: BEARING TEST RIG USED BY STAMMLER, ET AL. IN [113].............................................................................................. 39
FIGURE 2.24: WIND TURBINE BLADE, HUB AND PITCH BEARING [110]. ............................................................................................... 40
FIGURE 2.25: TYPICAL PITCH BEARING. (REFERENCE TURBINE IWT 164-7.5-MW – EXTRACTED FROM [97]) .....................................41
FIGURE 2.26 DISPLACEMENT RATIO DIAGRAM [97]. ......................................................................................................................... 41
FIGURE 2.27: FOUR-POINT CONTACT INTO ANGULAR CONTACT SIMPLIFICATION. ............................................................................. 42
FIGURE 3.1: FUNCTIONAL BREAKDOWN DIAGRAM. ........................................................................................................................... 44
FIGURE 3.2: EARLY CAM CONCEPT .................................................................................................................................................... 45
FIGURE 3.3: CONVENTIONAL SERVOMOTOR DIRECT DRIVE ............................................................................................................... 45
FIGURE 3.4: FRAMELESS DIRECT DRIVE MOTOR APPROACH ............................................................................................................. 46
FIGURE 3.5: ARRAY OF KOLLMORGEN KBM FRAMELESS MOTORS IN DIFFERENT SIZES AND ASPECT RATIOS. .....................................46
FIGURE 3.6: HOLLOW SHAFT AND SINGLE SCREW AXIAL LOADING. ..................................................................................................47
FIGURE 3.7: INDUCTIVE ENCODER .................................................................................................................................................... 48
FIGURE 3.8 BIOMECHANICS FORCE PLATE ........................................................................................................................................ 48
FIGURE 3.9: MOTOR PERFORMANCE ................................................................................................................................................. 50
FIGURE 3.10: MICRO SLIP TEST RIG DIAGRAM..................................................................................................................................51
FIGURE 4.1: BEARING TEST RIG RENDER .......................................................................................................................................... 52
FIGURE 4.2: CROSS SECTION VIEW OF THE BEARING TEST RIG. ......................................................................................................... 53
FIGURE 4.3: BEARING MOUNTING WEDGE NUT AND TAPERED BUSHING. .......................................................................................... 54
FIGURE 4.4: FRAMELESS MOTOR CASE WITH SHAFT CLAMPING ATTACHMENTS ................................................................................ 55
FIGURE 4.5: ENCODER MOUNTING .................................................................................................................................................... 55
FIGURE 4.6: SHAFT AND MOTOR COUPLING. .....................................................................................................................................56
FIGURE 4.7: LOAD SENSOR ARRAY ................................................................................................................................................... 57
FIGURE 4.8: AKD SERVO DRIVE ....................................................................................................................................................... 57
FIGURE 4.9: LIX100 AND PAO100 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 50UM / A/D=0.63) ................................ 59
FIGURE 4.10: LIX10 AND PAO10 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 50UM / A/D=0.63) ..................................60
FIGURE 4.11: PP100 AND PAO100 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 50UM / A/D=0.63) ................................ 61
FIGURE 4.12: PP10 AND PAO10 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 50UM / A/D=0.63). ...................................62
FIGURE 4.13: LIX100 AND PAO100 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 10UM / A/D=0.13) .............................. 63
FIGURE 4.14: LIX10 AND PAO10 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 10UM / A/D=0.13) ..................................64
FIGURE 4.15: PP100 AND PAO100 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 10UM / A/D=0.13) ................................ 65
FIGURE 4.16: PP10 AND PAO10 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 0.64GPA / AMPLITUDE= 10UM / A/D=0.13) .................................... 66
FIGURE 4.17: LIX10, PP10, LIX100 AND PP100 (MEAN CONTACT PRESSURE = 1.2 GPA / AMPLITUDE= 50UM / A/D=0.33) ............. 67

9
 1 INTRODUCTION

This section contains an overview of the project and highlights its relevance within the larger
picture of enabling necessary cost effectiveness improvement of renewable energy.

1.1 Background and Problem Definition

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, wind power deployment will play a
fundamental role in achieving the Paris Climate Targets and it can cover, if accompanied by deep
electrification, more than one-third of the energy-related carbon dioxide emissions reductions that
are necessary by 2050 [1]. The same report, however, also clarifies that an accelerated deployment
is necessary. This increase in deployment speed is fundamentally reliant on ongoing innovations
and technology enhancements towards larger-capacity turbines that will continue to improve the
cost-effectiveness of this energy production method. Thus, the colossal technological undertaking
that led to wind currently being the fastest-growing form of renewable energy in Europe, today
representing 15% of its power demand [2], must be continued and even accelerated in order to
match the EU Commission’s vision of wind being half of Europe’s power in 2050. The need for
this deployment acceleration and technological advancement becomes evident if the data for new
offshore/onshore installations for 2019 is evaluated: even though the yearly total installation was
a historical record amount, neither offshore or onshore growth rates are currently sufficient to meet
the Green Deal [3].

Alongside crucial improvements on foundation design strategies, gearbox reliability, condition

monitoring and a multitude of other aspects of wind turbine design; there is a latent idea that has
the potential to result in major leaps in cost reduction that will be particularly amplified by the
continued progression towards larger turbines. This idea involves individual control of blade pitch
angles, often referred to as IPC: Individual Pitch Control; meaning that the angle of the blade along
its long axis is controlled independently of other neighboring blades, see figure 1.2. Although the
seminal idea of pitch control was developed in the 1980s, during that time it was thought of as a
way to limit system-wide overloads, as opposed to stall-regulated wind turbines, and all of the
blades were collectively controlled [4]. Currently, IPC implementations have proven their capacity
to reduce blade root fatigue loads by 15%-30%, hub and shaft loads by 20%-40% and tower top
moments by 10% [5]. These results are also backed up by alternative sources [6, 7]. Load
reductions of such magnitude imply that, by cleverly turning the rotor blades into/out of the wind
with an individual pitch control system, not only is power generation controlled, but also the rotor
blades are subjected to lower fatigue loads and can be made narrower. Therefore, allowing for
material savings in the blades (which represent 22.2% of the cost of the whole system) as well as
directly impacting the loads on the tower (that represents 26.3% of the total cost) [8]. Furthermore,
a great number of very promising control strategies and architectures are being put forward in the
literature [9]. Currently, most wind turbine manufacturers are either using or planning on using
IPC in their commercial turbines [5]. This surge of interest is rooted in the fact that, as the trend
towards larger-scale individual turbines continues, the cost-effectiveness gains from reducing
structural loads become progressively more significant and more aggressive pitch control
reductions are becoming desirable [6,7].

10
 Principle Power. Artist: Dock90

Figure 1.1: Offshore Wind Turbine during deployment

process.

Figure 1.2: Wind Turbine Cutaway Schematic.

11
However, in order to unleash the full potential of this technology in large scale practical
applications, an age old fundamental problem must be tackled first. Modern IPC involves frequent
small oscillating motions of the rotor blades and their corresponding pitch bearings, which attach
the blade to the hub allowing the rotation necessary for pitch variations. These small displacements
are prone to cause fretting damage in the bearing raceways; drastically and dangerously reducing
the life of the bearings and entirely defeating the cost reduction purpose of IPC. The rolling
elements subjected to small reciprocal displacements push the lubricant out of the contact
interface, metal to metal contact occurs, a complex mixture of wear mechanisms start to take place
within the contact and a drastically accelerated damage process begins. Not only are there
considerable uncertainties in the current estimation of fatigue damage for small cyclic pitch
movements in bearings [10], in worst case scenarios, the pitch bearing can fail even before a
fatigue crack has enough time to develop significantly due to wear altering the geometry of the
raceway to such an extent that the torque provided by the IPC actuator is not enough to rotate the
blade and catastrophic failure ensues, for aerodynamic regulation of the wind turbine becomes
non-existent.

Grease lubrication is a fundamental factor in maximizing bearing life by reducing friction and
protecting metal surfaces from damage. At the moment, however, there is no clear consensus on a
lubrication strategy that satisfactorily attenuates this type of fretting damage in bearings, thus
enabling the application of IPC to its full potential, and which also simultaneously meets a plethora
of demanding requirements of wind power pitch bearing lubrication. Furthermore, standardized
testing for grease performance in terms of fretting damage is application specific, can be
unrepresentative of current field tests and tends to show conflicting results [11].

Axel Christiernsson International AB, one of the most important lubricating grease producers in
Europe, is currently interested in facilitating the technological advancement of the wind power
sector by systematically developing greases that directly enable the implementation of IPC by
attenuating fretting damage in pitch bearings. To this end, the present work pertains to the design
of a test rig that can be used to induce controlled fretting conditions on lubricated rolling element
bearings that possess contact conditions similar to those found in wind power pitch bearings. A
further objective of the project is also to use the KTH Micro-Slip test rig, that emulates the bearing
contact conditions with a singular contact, to obtain a better insight into contact dynamics when
various lubricants are used in fretting inducing conditions.

An increased understanding of this small-oscillation driven bearing damage mode is necessary for
the implementation of wind power IPC to its full potential, which would have a direct impact on
our capacity to generate renewable energy with a significant competitive advantage. However, the
benefits of an increased understanding in this area would not be limited to wind power. Industrial
applications where small bearing oscillations are present, whether they are necessary or functional
oscillations, as in robotics, motion control and prosthetics; or whether they are unwanted by-
products of normal operation or transportation, would also benefit from an increased bearing life
and reliability with respect of this damage mechanism, resulting in both sustainability and cost
reduction advantages. In fact, fretting related failures are the only type of tribological failure in
industry that has not decreased its incidence rates during the past decades [12]. Thus, it represents
a formidable and relevant technological challenge that has been limiting engineering design
options to solutions that often tend to traverse great lengths to circumnavigate this persistent
fundamental issue.

12
1.2 Purpose and Research Questions

The main goal of this project is to further our understanding of fretting damage in pitch bearings
and the influence that lubrication has on this phenomenon. To that end, two distinct main
objectives and their respective primary inherent research questions are formulated as follows:

1) Design of a novel bearing test rig to evaluate fretting damage progression in rolling element
bearings: This test rig has the purpose of facilitating the development of greases better
suited to fretting damage inducing operating conditions.

1.1) What should be the design requirements for this machine?

1.2) How to contain the fretting phenomena so that it only occurs within the
test specimen and not throughout the test machine?

1.3) How to achieve reliable operation and sensing in harsh environmental

conditions like high humidity or low temperature.

1.4) What kind of smaller scale bearing better emulates the contact
conditions and fretting regimes present in modern pitch bearings?

2) Use the existing KTH Micro-Slip Test Rig to obtain a better insight into fretting contact
dynamics when different lubricants are employed.

2.1) What is the effect that lubricant composition has on friction within the
contact in fretting conditions?

1.3 Delimitations

- The bearing fretting test rig to be designed (Objective 1) is not going to be manufactured
or physically validated during the course of this work.

- The implementation of a virtual instrument associated with the test rig to be designed
(Objective 1) is outside of the scope of this work.

- Deliverables from the design of the new test rig (Objective 1) are limited to a report of the
design process and outcome.

13
 - The experiments using the KTH Micro-Slip test rig (Objective 2) are limited to analysing
the fretting behavior of a finite set of representative lubricants. Without the use of any
additive packages, only in their friction-displacement performance and limited to smooth
steel-steel contacts.

1.4 Methods

The design process of the new bearing test rig, specified as Objective 1, will follow a functional
breakdown design process in which every function and sub-function of the test rig will be
identified and a variety of means will be evaluated and cross-evaluated to obtain the desired
functionality. It is intended that, with this approach, a modular solution better suited to be operated
in cold and humid environments will be attained. All of the design process is backed up by a
literature review. Pertinent calculations will be performed in Matlab. CAD needs will be addressed
via Solid Edge and any subsequent necessary modelling will be handled via a suitable software
package, such as ANSYS or ADAMS.

Objective 2, which pertains to the use of the KTH Micro-Slip Test Rig, will be achieved via an
experimental methodology. Where a literature review is conducted to contextualize the experiment
within a larger scientific body of work. Experiments are systematically designed, executed
according to a set protocol and analysed and, subsequently, results and discussion are presented.

14
 2 FRAME OF REFERENCE
A summary of the existing knowledge and former performed research on the subject of fretting is
presented.

2.1 An Introduction to Fretting Damage

Fretting arises wherever small-amplitude reciprocating displacements between contacting surfaces

occur in a prolonged manner. These displacements cause surface wear and deterioration of the
fatigue life of the affected components. Even contacts which exhibit no apparent macroscopic
relative motion, such as bolted joints and press-fits, when loaded, inevitably allow micro-sliding
(so called because it is in the order of micro-meters); thus potentially giving rise to fretting
phenomena. The extent of the surface damage is much greater than what the microscopic slip
magnitudes would intuitively suggest [12].

Figure 2.1 shows fretting damage that occurred at the contact interface between an inner bearing
raceway and the bearing seat in the shaft. In this case caused by a relatively loose fit. Small wear
particles located at the interface, product of micro slip and adhesive wear, will oxidize and
subsequently start a process of three body abrasion. The surface damage also facilitates crack
initialization.

Figure 2.1: Fretting Corrosion of bearing ring and seat (Tribology-abc.com).

Since machines, in the great majority of cases, contain a significant number of contacts potentially
subjected to repetitive small-amplitude displacements, it is perhaps not surprising that the first
documented case of fretting took the form of an accidental inconvenience during early twentieth
century fatigue testing. The first documentation referring to fretting damage is found as a single
paragraph in Eden, et al. [13] in their 1911 paper titled “Endurance of Metals”. During the

15
execution of fatigue tests, it was observed that oxide debris was being generated in the steel
specimen fixtures of their fatigue testing rig. The sample holders were designed to allow for shorter
and easier to manufacture samples to be used in the fatigue tests. Of the corrosion issue
encountered in their fatigue testing Eden, et al. wrote the following:

“ Corrosion of Test-pieces and Holders: A good deal of trouble was caused by corrosion where
the test-specimen fits into its holders. The rusting at this point was so great in the case of heavily
loaded tests lasting for several days that it was often difficult to remove the broken specimen from
the holder. The same trouble was experienced in an earlier repeated load's testing machine at
University College. This machine was of the Wohler rotating cantilever type, with round test-
specimens, 1 inch diameter, fitted into conical holes in the testing-machine spindle. In this machine
red rust was produced in considerable quantity. There seems to be no doubt that this corrosion is
due to the varying stress between the test-specimen and its holder, and the authors believe that the
rust often found between a wheel and its shaft or a key and key-way, and the corrosion of ball-
bearings is usually due to a similar action and not only to the presence of moisture. After the first
few trials the specimens were well oiled before being put in place, but this was only partially
effective. The specimens were somewhat easier to withdraw, but rust was still produced. ”

It was however not until 1927 that Tomlinson [14], having attributed minute displacements at the
contact interface as the cause of previous observations, designed test equipment in order to study
fretting phenomena intentionally. Tomlinson coined the term “Fretting Corrosion”. His work also
showed that the fretting damage could be caused by displacement amplitudes as minuscule as 125
nanometers.

The first investigations regarding the influence that fretting damage can have on fatigue strength
where conducted in 1941 by Warlow.Davies [15]. Fretting damage was introduced into steel
fatigue specimens and posterior fatigue testing revealed that fatigue strength reductions between
13% and 17% had occurred. Which was to be expected because of the surface deterioration initially
imposed with fretting. Interestingly, it was later shown by McDwell [16], in 1953, that when
fretting damage occurs simultaneously with fatigue loading, strength is reduced by factors of 2 to
5 and sometimes even larger. This simultaneous action, which was proved to be critically
influential in fatigue life, is actually more representative of practical conditions. In 1958, Fenner
and Field [17] showed that fretting significantly accelerated the crack initiation process. The first
large scale systematic analysis of fretting fatigue was conducted by Nishioka and Hirakawa [18]
and this area of research still contains many open questions [19].

Fretting damage not only occurs in distributed conformal contacts and the resulting failure can be
different from crack growth and subsequent fracture. Perhaps the most classic example of fretting
damage in industry involves damage to automotive wheel bearings during rail-way, truck or
maritime transportation. In 1937, Almen [20] found that wheel bearings were being damaged
before the car even reached the customers. In fact, the damage was more pronounced in cars that
were shipped to more remote destinations and was particularly similar to brinelling indentations.
It was thus termed false brinelling, for it was not a product of plastic overload of the contact, but
rather micro-oscillations that occurred during shipping, as was later further demonstrated by
Pittroff [21]. Figure 2.2 shows the type of damage that these small oscillations can produce on a
thrust bearing raceway. This shipping issue prompted the development of greases that attenuate
this phenomena and improvements in transportation conditioning and other strategies [22].
Research on this specific topic is being published even to this day [23] and fretting damage in
bearings as a whole still contains many open questions. Whether the small displacements are

16
caused by unwanted vibrations, as in the car shipping scenario, or whether the small displacements
at the contacting surfaces is inherent to the desired operation, such as wind power pitch bearings,
fretting damage will occur and there are significant uncertainties and discrepancies in our currently
established approaches to predict the life of the bearing [24].

Figure 2.2: Fretting damaged thrust bearing raceway.

Fretting damage induced failures are often seen in press fits, near the outer edges of the press fitted
interface. Over 90% of the failures in freight car axles are reported to be initiated at the shaft-hub
connection, where stress concentrations and fretting conditions are dominant [25]. Riveted joints
have also been reported to have untimely failures related to fretting damage induced crack
initiation [26]. Fretting damage in surgical implants, where the usual debris associated with fretting
is particularly dangerous and premature failure has severe consequences, has also been the focus
of many studies [27] and is currently undergoing persistent research; often related to the influence
that the biological environment where the device is located has on fretting [28]. Other examples
of fretting include, but are not limited to, electrical switch gears, sockets in integrated circuit
boards subjected to periodic differential thermal stresses, wire rope (at the interface between the
multitude of strands), electrical contacts in relays, switches and selectors, dovetail joints in turbines
and numerous other examples are abundant [25].

Despite the fact that fretting phenomena has been the object of study for nearly a century, there
are still ongoing efforts to standardize the field both in nomenclature and testing [29]. The
terminology involved in fretting research can often lead to confusion. Fretting fatigue, fretting
corrosion, false brinelling are terms that are closely related, but not the same. Fretting fatigue refers
to the process of crack initialization due to surface defects resulting from fretting, and subsequent
deterioration of the fatigue life (in fact, for steels there is often no endurance limit when fretting is
combined with fatigue loading [12]). Fretting corrosion refers to the production, during a fretting
process in an oxidative environment and with lack of lubrication, of oxide particle debris that often
accelerates the wear process. Note that fretting occurs even with non-oxidizing materials [30].

17
False brinelling refers to brinelling-like indentations produced, not via plastic overload of the
concentrated contact (as it is in real brinelling) but rather by fretting wear.

2.2 Fretting in Hertzian Contacts

Since the objective of the present work pertains to fretting in bearings, the fundamental theoretical
background will be presented from the perspective of a Hertzian contact. In order to develop an
understanding of fretting, the nature of microscopic slip, often referred to as micro-slip, and why
it is bound to occur, must be explained as a starting point.

Micro-Slip in a Hertzian contact subjected to a tangential load

Two solids in contact, pressed together with a normal force and subsequently subjected to an
increasing tangential load, will eventually begin to slide. This sliding will occur when the
tangential load reaches a sufficiently large magnitude, which is widely expected. However, even
at tangential force levels well below the threshold for gross macroscopic sliding, tangential micro-
slip occurs as a result of the applied tangential load. This small sliding motion is an intrinsic feature
of every Hertzian contact subjected to a tangential force [31,32] and is also instrumental for the
occurrence of fretting damage in Hertzian contacts [12].

In a Hertzian contact interface, the normal stress has a maximum magnitude at the center of the
contact patch and smoothly decays to zero at the edge of the contact. When a tangential load is
applied, and it is assumed that no slip occurs throughout the entirety of the contact patch, the
resulting tangential stress at the edge of the contact must rise asymptotically to infinity. A more
reasonable outcome follows if it is instead assumed that, because at the boundary of the contact
region the Hertzian normal pressure is zero, some peripheral slip must occur, even for minute
tangential forces. Both Cattaneo [31] and Mindlin [32] independently came to the conclusion that
the condition for the initialization of slip is that the tangential traction can’t exceed the product of
the coefficient of friction and the normal pressure. Figure 2.3 illustrates this thought process rather
clearly. It follows that if the normal load is held constant, and a tangential load is monotonically
increased starting from zero, micro-slip will occur instantly at the perimeter of the contact patch
and an annular area where slip is present will grow inwards, along with the increasing tangential
force. This slip annular region will continue to grow inwards until the tangential load approaches
the normal load times the friction coefficient and the no-slip or stick region collapses to a point (or
a line), just at the onset of gross sliding.

Experimental evidence for the existence of these regions, a central region of stick and a peripheral
region where slip occurs, can be found in [33, 34]. Sato [34] showed that for reciprocating sliding
of a ball on flat, by virtue of varying the sliding amplitudes, different damage patterns emerge and
they correlate with a growing slip annular region of damage for increasing displacement
amplitudes.

18
 Figure 2.3: Normal and tangential stress fields for an elastic contact with and without slip
(Extracted from [12])

Mindlin [32] proposes that the radius of the central stick region is given by the following equation:

𝑄 1/3
𝑟 ′ = 𝑟 (1 − ) (1)
𝜇𝑊

Where “r-prime” is the radius of the stick region, “r” is the contact radius, “Q” is the tangential
force, “W” is the normal load and μ is the static coefficient of friction. Note that as the normal load
or the static coefficient of friction increase, the area of stick increases as well; while an increase in
tangential load decreases the size of the stick region.

The model, as it is explained so far, assumes that contacting asperities form junctions that are rigid.
When loaded in shear past a critical value, slip occurs as a result of a sudden fracture of the asperity
couples, without any previous elastic or plastic deformation. This simplification has led to
inconsistencies with experimental results, particularly with regards of the maximum displacement
amplitude that can be assimilated by the contact without gross slip, which in reality tends to be
higher than the one predicted by this model [35]. This prompted the logical extension of this model
to include elasto-plastic effects [36]. The extended model instead assumes that in between the
previously described regions of stick and slip, lies an annular region of plastic deformation of the
asperities which have not yet fractured. See figure 2.4 and compare it with figure 2.3-C, notice
how in the transition of surface stress from stick to slip regions is now rounded as opposed to
sharp.

19
 Figure 2.4 Surface stress distribution in an elasto-plastic fretting contact [12].

Other mechanisms that result in Micro-slip

Although the previously discussed models are useful for developing an intuitive understanding of
fretting phenomena, they are limited to a pure sliding tangential motion. Fretting can occur
wherever micro-slip takes place and a tangential load in kinematic pure sliding is only one specific
case of the plethora of conditions that can allow for micro-slip to occur, even exclusively within
Hertzian contacts.

For example, figure 2.5 shows a ball (grey) pressed against a flat (blue). Exclusively under the
influence of a normal load “W”, the ball and the flat will deform elastically. The curved contacting
length, from point 1 to point 2, has reduced in length for the ball and increased in length for the
flat. The counteracting strains at the mating surfaces will result in micro slip, which in this case is
more specifically referred to as Reynolds Slip. Note, in figure 2.5, the stick region in the central
part of the contact patch, where the contact pressure is high and thus the friction is sufficient to
prevent sliding. This type of slip can occur under pure rolling and it also indicates that fretting
behavior is likely to be obtained if the load “W” is repeatedly fluctuating.

Figure 2.5 Reynolds Slip.

20
Another example of slip that occurs in practical applications is Heathcote Slip, which occurs in
rolling motion due to the counter surface being curved perpendicular to the direction of motion (as
in deep groove ball bearings). In this case the slip is imposed by the variable rolling diameter in
the contact. Furthermore, angular contact ball bearings and linear rolling guides also have an
imposed spinning component to the motion of their rolling elements, although in the literature the
main concern regarding spinning is related to frictional temperature increases, for small reciprocal
displacements, this spinning constitutes another mechanism for the occurrence of fretting. It then
stands to reason that the simple case of reciprocating pure sliding is a useful but significant
simplification of numerous forms combined of micro-slip that occur in practical applications. A
good summary of different simple fretting mechanisms in concentrated ball-on-flat contacts can
be found in [37] and figure 2.6 elucidates the four principal fretting mechanisms for a ball on flat
studied in [37].

Figure 2.6: Four simple fretting motion modes for ball-on-flat contact [37].

2.3 Fretting maps and fretting regimes

Fretting maps are a widely used as an approach to represent and classify experimental fretting data
and are surprisingly useful in aiding in the understanding of fretting behavior. If, during a fretting
experiment, displacement, friction force and time are recorded, it is then possible to produce a
Fretting Log where the Z axis represents the friction force (or alternatively the friction coefficient),
the Y axis represents the displacement and the X axis represents the time or alternatively the cycle
number.

Figure 2.7 shows a running fretting log (C) for a lubricated contact and two sampled loops (cross
sections – A & B) extracted at an initial stage and at a later stage of the 1000 cycle ball-on-flat
tangential fretting test. Note that the shape of the fretting loop experiences quite a drastic shift as
the number of cycles increases. This is type of progression is quite representative of the different
friction behaviors that can be interpreted with this visualization approach. During the initial stage
of the test (Figure 2.7-A) the fretting contact is gross sliding. As the displacement is progressively
imposed, the contact and the test rig itself initially accommodate the forces by elastically
deforming, micro-slip occurs. Subsequently, after the breakaway friction force magnitude is
surpassed, and the micro-slip region has vanished the central sticking region, the contacting bodies
proceed in gross sliding (horizontal top and bottom of the loop A). The resulting loop shape is
analogous to a parallelogram. The loop is completed because the imposed motion is then repeated
in the opposite direction. After the number of cycles increases, the friction force increases as well
and the load required to achieve gross slip is not achieved, thus the contact is sticking throughout

21
the entirety of the loop and therefore the loop almost collapses into an inclined line (Figure 2.7-
B).

A) B)

Sc

C)

Figure 2.7: Fretting map and fretting loops (cross sections).

In examining the fretting loop presented in 2.7 – A & B, note the slope “Sc”. This represents the
tangential stiffness of the contact in series with the stiffness of the test rig in the direction of the
imposed motion. Furthermore, when comparing the loops A with B, note that the axis are
significantly changed, the stiffness “Sc” could be calculated with loop B and the result would be
practically identical. Also note, that the area contained within the loops is actually the energy that
is being dissipated per cycle and that the area within the collapsed loop B, where the behavior is
macroscopically elastic, is related to the micro-slip occurring within the “stuck” contact.

22
By varying the normal force level and the imposed displacement amplitude, the friction and wear
behavior change, and a Running Condition Fretting Map can be drawn, which offers a overall view
of the different fretting regimes. Fretting maps were originally introduced by Vingsbo and
Söderberg in 1988 [38]. Alongside Running Condition Fretting Maps, Material Response Fretting
Maps are also remarkably illustrative. Figure 2.8 shows how varying the normal load and the
displacement amplitude, ceteris paribus, changes the shape of the fretting loops, producing 3
distinct fretting regimes: Partial Sliding Regime (PSR), Mixed Regime (MR), Gross Sliding
Regime (GSR). Furthermore, typical damages are associated with different regimes. It can also be
seen that the data presented in figure 2.7 is in the mixed regime domain. The attentive reader might
notice that wear damage seems to be associated with larger loop areas, meaning larger dissipated
energy per fretting cycle. There is indeed a relationship between the dissipated energy and fretting
wear but it is not as straight forward as the diagram in Figure 2.7 indicates, as there are a large
number of variables that have an effect on the fretting process [39] and several considerations that
will be addressed in the following section before discussing the relationship between friction work
and fretting wear.

Figure 2.8: Running Condition Fretting Maps & Material Response Fretting Maps.

2.4 Fretting Wear

Fretting wear is a complex phenomenon. Although the basic processes that occur during fretting
are analogous to those occurring in a sliding contact, the fact that the sliding distance is of similar
magnitude or smaller that the contact size entails that ingress of environmental agents into the

23
contact and ejection of debris from the contact become important and difficult to manage
considerations when analyzing the fretting process. Furthermore, there are a significant number of
factors that have a stark influence of the development of the fretting process. Some of the main
considerations are addressed in this following section:

Role of Oxidation and Debris

Although it might seem odd to address the role of oxidation and debris before discussing perhaps
more evident factors, such as amplitude, frequency or contact geometry; it will become evident
that most, if not all, of the other factors become important in part due to the effect that they impart
on oxidation and debris ejection.

It has been shown repeatedly that oxidation processes greatly influence the behavior of fretting in
metal-to-metal contacts [40]. Debris on carbon steel and other steels fretting in air is mainly finely
ground and a red-brown colored α-Fe2O3. This oxide debris can be generated via to distinct
mechanisms:

1. Oxide film that formed at the surfaces and it is removed, whereupon a new oxide layer
grows.

2. Metallic debris particles are created and they are subsequently oxidized.

It is a possibility that both mechanisms of debris formation can occur simultaneously within
different regions of the contact or that either of them alternatively dominates during the different
stages of the process.

Although it is not unusual to find literature where this oxide debris production is often perceived
as a wear accelerator, acting as an abrasive agent [12], there is also evidence that it sometimes acts
as coherent protective debris bed that limits metal-to-metal contact and also accommodates a
fraction of the imposed movement [41]. Interestingly, Colombie, et al. [42] showed that even chalk
powder, arbitrarily added to the contact, was able to form a third body protective layer. They also
observed that periodically stopping the fretting experiment to resume the process after the oxide
debris had been removed increased wear. Iwabuchi, et al. [43] artificially placed oxide particles
on a fretting interface and concluded that if a stable compact glaze film is generated, a reduction
of wear is observed, otherwise it increases abrasive wear. On the other hand, it is also generally
reported that oxygen and water accentuate fretting wear and surface damage and that an inert
atmosphere suppresses fretting in metals [44,45]. An interesting analysis of this slightly
paradoxical conundrum is conducted by Varenberg, et al. [44], where by allowing or preventing
the oxide wear debris to escape from the interface, it was concluded that the role of debris depends
on the dominant fretting wear mechanism: for conditions where adhesive damage will be
dominant, oxide debris retention reduces wear and, alternatively, for conditions where abrasive
wear will be dominant, oxide debris ejection reduces wear. Furthermore, studies where the effect
of reduced air pressure on fretting of a variety of metals [45-47] show that low atmospheric
pressures induce large friction coefficients and significantly accelerated adhesive damage to the
fretting interfaces. Therefore, suggesting that the oxide film is of critical importance and that
caution must be exercised in applications such as vacuum equipment and aerospace.

24
Slip Amplitude and Normal Load

In 1927 Tomlinson [14] demonstrated that relative motions, even those in the nanometer range,
were the driving mechanism of fretting damage. Slipping amplitudes greatly affect the progression
of fretting damage. All things remaining equal, by progressively increasing the sliding amplitude
the fretting behavior will drive the contact to traverse all three regimes of fretting previously
described in the Fretting Maps section, namely Partial Sliding Regime (PSR), Mixed Regime
(MR), Gross Sliding Regime (GSR). Figure 2.9 shows typical damage mechanisms for each of the
three regimes. The effect of normal load can also be deduced from Figure 2.9.

Figure 2.9: Fretting wear rate as a function of displacement (A) and Fretting regime as a function
of Normal load and displacement [38].

However, it is not the absolute value of the sliding amplitude or the normal load that is relevant,
but rather the relationship between the contact area dimensions and the displacement amplitude,
often defined in the form of a Mutual Overlap Coefficient (MOC). The MOC is the ratio of the
contact area to the area that will be covered by the contact patch during the displacement. Meaning
that at low MOC values the original contact area is exposed, such as in reciprocating sliding wear
(MOC<<0.1) and fretting contacts will show MOC values close to unity. Other alternative ratios
that are fundamentally analogous are also employed. Nevertheless, most of the literature primarily

25
presents displacement amplitudes and sometimes even conclusions and definitions are formulated
with solely displacement amplitude as a criterion. For example: defining the gross sliding regime
as the fretting regime that occurs when the displacement amplitude is above 100 micro meters. It
is then difficult to translate results to different scales and draw meaningful conclusions in an
efficient manner. However, in 2004 a rigorously approached dimensional analysis was carried out
by Varenberg, et al. [48] where the slip index was proposed as a similarity criterion to
systematically differentiate fretting regimes in a way that should be independent from scale.

Equation (2) displays the definition of the Slip Index.

𝐴𝑑 𝑆𝑐
𝛿= (2)
𝑊

Where “δ” is the Slip Index, “W” is the normal load, “Ad” is the imposed displacement amplitude
and “Sc” is the stiffness of the contact and the test rig. These parameters govern the slip ratio, “s”,
which is defined as the ratio of the slip amplitude “As” and the imposed displacement amplitude
“Ad” (See figure 2.10). The slip ratio, “s”, then in turn determines the shape of the fretting loop
and thus the fretting regime that is to be expected. A slip ratio that tends towards 0 implies stick
conditions and a slip ratio that tends to 1 represents a condition where partial slip is negligibly
small compared to the displacement amplitude and the system is in reciprocal sliding. It is therefore
important to note the difference between the slip amplitude “As” and the imposed displacement
amplitude “Ad”. The imposed displacement amplitude is measured at some remote point outside
of the contact. It therefore includes all elastic deformation in the system, contact, fixtures and test
rig. On the other hand, it is not easy to directly measure the slip amplitude and it can be easy to
confuse one for the other [49].

Figure 2.10: Typical Fretting Loop Diagram [48].

According to [48], reciprocal sliding (not fretting!) occurs for slip indexes δ > 11, Gross Slip
fretting corresponds to 0.8 < δ < 10, and Partial Slip Regime is defined by 0.5< δ<0.6. The validity
of the Slip Index approach was backed up by demonstrating that the similarity criteria holds and

26
can serve to seamlessly relate experiments performed with a conventional fretting test rig and an
Atomic Force Microscope although the generalization for lower displacement amplitudes (Stick
Regime) still needs further work.

Frequency

The role that displacement frequency plays on fretting behavior is very often attributed to the effect
that it can have on the temporal and thermal nature of oxide debris formation. Feng, et al. [50]
found that the effects of frequency were vanished when fretting tests were conducted on a nitrogen
atmosphere, linking frequency and oxide formation. It is not perhaps too different to what is often
seen in environmentally affected fatigue, where a lower frequency of loading allows the
atmosphere to penetrate the cracks more thoroughly and environmental effects have a larger
influence over the lifetime of the component. Thermal effects can also gain importance at higher
frequencies, increasing the rate at which oxidation transpires but simultaneously providing less
time to allow for the protective oxide film to form again.

Contact Geometry

The influence of contact geometry is multifaceted. Contact geometry greatly influences the ease
in which debris generated can be expelled out of the contact, it also influences the amount of micro-
slip that occurs by affecting contact pressures and sliding kinematics (Reynolds Slip, Heathcote
Slip and Spinning Slip). Furthermore, a lower or higher contact conformity will also influence how
readily oxygen and other atmospheric species can penetrate the contact. An example of this
interplay can be seen in Warmuth, et al. [51], where the radius of a cylinder on flat configuration
was changed and different wear mechanisms were observed to dominate in different contact
conformities and wear rate decreased as the radius of curvature was increased.

Surface Finish

It has been shown repeatedly that severe fretting damage of an adhesive nature is more pronounced
on smoother surfaces and it also results in a higher friction coefficient, while a higher roughness
can reduce the friction coefficient but displays a higher wear rate [52], in fact having a direct
influence on the type of damage that results from fretting. However, Hurricks, et al. [53] report
that when higher temperatures are present, surfaces with low roughness have showed less damage
progression. The role that surface finish can have has been also discussed from the perspective of
intentionally texturized surfaces. For example, Varenberg, et al. [44] showed that the rate at which
debris can be ejected from the contact can be modified by virtue of changing the surface
topography and different damage mechanisms and wear rates are obtained.

Temperature

As temperature increases, both wear rate and coefficient of friction typically decrease over a
relatively narrow temperature variation window, which is often referred to as the transition

27
temperature [54,55]. However, lower wear rates are not necessarily beneficial in terms of fretting
fatigue life [56,57]. At elevated temperatures a smooth glaze layer has been observed to form and
blanket the compacted oxide debris. The temperature at which this layer forms depend on a number
of factors: such as slip amplitude and alloy quantities [58,59]. The observed changes in fretting
behavior, have been suggested to be caused by a shift in oxidation growth rate and to the
progressively dominant formation of Fe3O4 as opposed to the more common α-Fe2O3 found at
room temperature testing [59]. On the other hand, lower temperatures have been reported to
provoke an increase in fretting damage [50].

Material Properties

Although intuition might suggest that an increased hardness might improve fretting, this has been
found to be an unreliable approach in achieving fretting resistance [60]. Fretting research of alloy
steel surfaces has shown that hardness poses no relationship to the level of fretting wear [61].
Mutual solubility, on the other hand, has shown to be a factor in the fretting damage progression
of dissimilar metal pairs [62]. Also, microstructural factors, such as whether the steel is martensitic
or austenitic, have also been found to have a significant effect on fretting wear rates [62].

Modelling Fretting

A subset of modeling approaches that describe the nucleation and crack growth in materials
subjected to a varying stress field have been applied to model fretting fatigue [63 through 66].
These models take into account elastic and plastic deformation and use both continuum and
microstructure based models. However, modelling of fretting wear requires a detailed
phenomenological understanding of the fundamental physical processes occurring, which includes
debris behavior [67]. Regarding wear modeling, a range of approaches have been presented, where
each is based on significant simplifications, particularly regarding the generation and dynamics of
the debris. For example, McColl, et al. [68] use a commercial finite element software, a modified
version of Archard’s equation and data from fretting tests (measurements of the coefficients of
friction and wear) in order to model fretting wear, without considering debris, on gross slip regimes
exclusively, although a new publication dealing with partial slip regime is under review. There are
also examples of models that do address the role of debris in the wearing process [69-74]. The
manners in which debris is modelled are varied in approach. For instance, Renouf, et al. [72]
employ a unified discreet element approach to model the multi-physical behavior of third-body-
flows while [74] propose a coupling method, Finite Element and Discreet Element. These
modeling approaches are however not universal. For instance, in [70] it is assumed that the
dominant wear mechanism is abrasion, it does not capture the variation of friction coefficient with
wear progression and debris is assumed have the same Young’s Modulus of the bulk material and
to be attached to one of the two contacting bodies when the contact pressure calculations are
executed, yet the semi-analytical model results are in promising agreement with their experimental
data. Lastly, models that study the interplay of of fretting wear and fretting fatigue have also been
materialized in [75,76].

28
2.5 Fretting in Lubricated Conditions

When Eden, et al. [13] unexpectedly encountered fretting corrosion in their fatigue testing
equipment, even without a systematic understanding of the damage mechanism at hand, oil
lubrication was employed as a moderately successful fretting palliative. Even to this day,
lubrication is commonly used either as a direct attempt to mitigate fretting damage, or because the
contact set was bound to be lubricated in the first place, e.g. ball bearings. Regardless, the role that
lubrication plays on fretting is complex. On one hand, the lubricating fluid is supposed to reduce
friction and assist in separating the surfaces, but on the other hand, it also restricts oxygen ingress
into the contact [77], thus affecting oxidation rates. Furthermore, due to the small and repetitive
displacements, lubricant retention within the contact may become extremely poor [78], which can
result in lubricated fretting contacts displaying higher friction than dry contacts [79]. To
complicate things further, lubrication of fretting contacts shifts the already fuzzy boundaries
between different fretting regimes, and thus the nature of the resulting damage is altered as well.
In both oil and grease lubrication, fretting regimes shift to higher displacement amplitudes
compared to the regimes identified for dry fretting [80], meaning that a normal load / displacement
combination that yielded a contact in the slip regime for dry conditions (see figure 2.9), when
lubricated can be, perhaps counterintuitively, in mixed slip regime or partial slip regime.

Oil Lubrication

Oil lubrication in fretting contacts has been repeatedly studied [80]. The mechanisms by which it
acts can be expected to be related to the lubricants ability to reduce the friction coefficient and
wear coefficient due to its boundary lubrication properties (which heavily rely on oil penetration
into the contact), oxygen access inhibition, redistribution and possible removal of wear debris and
modification of contact stress distribution [81].

Separating the Surfaces

It is generally recognized that, due to the often very low sliding speeds encountered in fretting,
liquid lubrication cannot effectively separate the surfaces with a hydrodynamic fluid film [81,82].
Maruyama and Saitoh [83] later specifically found that for amplitude ratios less than 1.6 no oil
film formed in reciprocating ball on flat configuration, regardless of maximum vibrating speed,
oil viscosity and maximum contact pressure. Where the amplitude ratio (A/D) is the moving
distance of the contact area, “A”, divided by the diameter of the Hertz contact area, “D”, see figure
2.11. This means that if the sliding distance is not large enough for the original contact area to be
completely uncovered and separated from the current contact by a distance slightly larger than the
contact radius, the boundary lubrication properties of the oil will gain importance for no oil film
is being formed. However, when this critical amplitude radius is exceeded, an oil film is able to
form and can be sustained even when the velocity is zero at the displacement reversal points of the
cycle, due to the squeeze effect (see figure 2.12).

29
 Figure 2.11: Amplitude ratio. A=Oscillation amplitude; D=Hertzian contact diameter [83]

Figure 2.12: Fretting wear in reciprocal sliding of ball on flat for varying viscosity and amplitude
ratio, Maruyama, et al. [83].

Oil Viscosity

The effect of oil viscosity is therefore multifaceted. If the amplitude ratio allows for a film to form,
a thicker oil will lead to reduced damage [83], as can be seen in figure 2.11. However, by
modifying the viscosity, the oxygen permeability of the lubricating medium is also changed.
Wright [84] found that the oxygen concentration in air was six times that of the lubricant and the
oxygen diffusion within the lubricant is approximately proportional to the inverse of its viscosity.
Furthermore, it has been found that decreasing lubricant viscosity can significantly improve oil
penetration into the contact and reduce fretting wear [82] especially when the contacting surfaces
have been grooved [85]. With this in mind, note in figure 2.12, that for A/D = 0.6, the high viscosity
oil damage clearly shows that the contact was sticking and damage is therefore concentrated on
the annular area of micro-slip, however, the low viscosity oil damage shows a reduced area of
sticking and the damage more distributed.

Boundary Lubrication Properties and Additives

It was reported by Neyman [86] that the boundary lubrication properties of the lubricating oil are
even more important than its viscosity when addressing fretting damage. In this study, the welding

30
load was used as a sole measure of the boundary lubrication properties and wear was found to be
much more sensitive to this parameter than to oil viscosity. For the sake of clarity, boundary
lubrication occurs where neither hydrodynamic or EHL lubrication is sustained and it is often
associated to specific lubrication modes such as adsorption, surface localized viscosity
enhancement, amorphous layers and sacrificial films [14]. These lubrication mechanisms are often
controlled by additives present in the oil and are generally related to the production of a thin low
shear strength film that lowers the friction coefficient via tribochemical reactions that occur
between the lubricant and the metal surfaces. Following this line of thinking, Sato, et al. [87]
showed that 2% zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) added to the lubricant oil resulted in
remarkable reductions on fretting wear and friction. ZDDP is a common anti-wear lubrication
additive that also has antioxidant and corrosion inhibition properties, often used in engine oils.
Godfrey [88] found that certain phosphorous based additives, e.g., tricresyl phosphate and triethyl
phosphorothioate were also capable to reduce fretting wear by forming tribofilms. Law and Rowe
[89], when investigating common transmission additives, found wear performance to be very much
dependent on the additive system. Qiu, et al. [90] found that various sulfur containing anti-wear
additives were effective in reducing friction and wear in fretting conditions as well. Grahn, et al.
[91] produced experimental data that mirrors what was found previously regarding ZDDP in [87]
but also showed that the effect of ZDDP was dependent upon adsorption times, on the polarity of
the base oil and the presence of other polar molecules like friction modifiers, which they attributed
to competition for surface access.

Oil Structure

Since lubricity, which encompasses the friction and wear properties of a lubricant in boundary
regime, has been shown to influence fretting; it should not come as a surprise that oil type, referring
to whether the oil is mineral (paraffinic or naphtenic), synthetic (PAO, PAG or synthetic esters),
vegetable (rapesseed, canola…), also plays a role in the fretting performance of a lubricant. Wang
and Zhou [91] investigated the fretting behavior of several synthetic base oils and found that
although it is generally accepted that similarly viscous oil should produce similar fretting palliative
effects, there was a noticeable difference in fretting behavior between the three examined base oils
of nearly identical viscosities. Among PAO 10, PAG 68 and Silicone 68, reportedly due to the
lowest surface tension and pressure-viscosity coefficient, as well as the maximum compressibility,
the Silicone 68 had the poorest performance while the PAO 10 displayed less than half of the wear
volume. Wunsch [93] compared the performance of paraffinic, mixed-base, aromatic aliphatic,
aliphatic and other structures in terms of fretting performance and also found diverse performances
based on the lubricating oil structure.

Grease Lubrication

A grease consists of a base oil, thickener and a package of performance additives. The thickener
forms a matrix which retains the oil in a semi-solid state. The action of grease lubrication in fretting
is more complex than that of oil lubrication [94]. Although many of the previously established
factors relevant to oil lubrication (such as boundary lubrication properties, additives, oxygen
permeability, etc.) are still relevant in the context of grease lubrication; there are additional factors,
such as grease separation, oil bleed and evolution of the residual oil film that add significant
complexity. Regardless of this increase in complexity, the study of grease performance in fretting
conditions is necessary because greases are used in an extremely wide array of applications and

31
allows for implementations where a continuous supply of oil cannot be sustained or it is impractical
to do so, and thus can greatly reduce the need for maintenance. Furthermore, grease lubrication
still represents the vast majority of bearing applications.

The key differences between grease and oil lubrication in fretting contacts have been studied and
are outlined by Maruyama, et al. in [95]. Although fretting wear can be reduced via the formation
of an oil film with high viscosity oil lubrication at high speed, greases show a largely different
wear response: Low-viscosity base oil grease instead reduces fretting wear at high velocity and
high-viscosity base oils could reduce fretting wear at low velocities. Furthermore, grease
thickeners were found to be effective in forming a layer that prevented fretting wear when A/D>1.
The formation of this thickener layer was apparently facilitated by an increase in oil separation,
see figure 2.13 (i.e. decreasing viscosity or increasing worked penetration) and it was estimated
that the behavior of this film could be explained by the residual thickener film having a viscosity
30 times larger than the base oil viscosity. These results were obtained using PAOs of various
viscosities as base oils and a urea compound thickener.

Figure 2.13: Thickener layer diagram [95].

Although most of the research evaluating fretting in grease lubricated contacts has mostly been
focused on studying the effect that contact conditions and physical parameters (such as
displacement amplitude and base oil viscosity) have on the fretting process [95 & 96], research
pertaining the influence of grease type and additive packages has also been conducted [94 & 97].
Neyman [94] studied the fretting performance of several grease types with and without varying
percentages of additives and also an array of commercial greases; reporting that pure synthetic
alkyloaromatic grease was ineffective as a fretting palliative, addition of graphite, molybdenum
disulphide or AW additive improved fretting wear significantly, high concentration of powdered
graphite and molybdenum disulphide were only effective at higher concentrations (10%) while
AW additive (Acorox 880) was effective at 0.5% and 1%, but not at 2%. It was also reported that
although there appears to be no correlation between base oil viscosity and fretting wear, there is a
correlation with grease consistency (which is in agreement with [95]) and different mineral greases
containing the same additive packages performed similarly. This last point highlights the
importance of boundary lubrication properties of grease in fretting contacts which was previously
addressed by the same researcher in when studying oils in [86]. It was also found that there was a
reliable reason to state a negative correlation between seizure load of grease in a four-ball test and
its ability to decrease fretting wear. While Neyman in [94] conducted experiments on a crossed

32
cylinder contact configuration, Shawck, et al. [97] experimented with oscillating bearings with six
different commercial greases. The contact and displacement conditions were downscaled from a
reference wind power pitch bearing, which makes this work of particular relevance within the
context of this thesis. It was found that low base oil viscosities and high bleeding rates performed
best on average in the range of tested conditions, but none of the tested greases resulted in
satisfactorily reduced wear for all conditions.

2.6 Fretting Experiments: Test Rigs

There is a wide array of fretting test rigs that show a great deal of diversity in contact geometry
and motion. In references [98, 99] a large variety of fretting fatigue testing equipment, together
with their features and limitations, is discussed. However, the present section only includes a
subset of representative embodiments of fretting testing equipment.

ASTM-D4170: An early fretting standard.

Existing standards are often a good starting point when approaching the study of any form of
testing equipment. Currently several different ASTM standards that are related to fretting exist.
Standards dealing with medical devices specifically are found in [100-102] and with electrical
contacts in [103]. More relevant to the present work is the ASTM-D4170 standard [104], which
treats fretting wear protection in oscillating bearings by means of grease lubrication [104]. The
standard ASTM-D4170 describes the testing procedure and equipment initially developed in the
1980s to evaluate the fretting performance of greases on wheel bearings of passenger cars when
shipped long distances, which can be seen in figure 2.14. Notable design attributes are its
simplicity: the fact that the load is produced via a compression spring and that the small angular
displacements are imposed with an electric motor and a four bar linkage. The resulting wear is
quantified by weighing the raceways before and after the experiment.

Figure 2.14: Falex Fretting Wear Tester, as presented in [104].

33
SRV Testing

The machine displayed in figure 2.14, however, is not particularly versatile. A more modern
approach can be found in the ASTM-D7594 standard [105]. Which is a test method for determining
fretting wear resistance of lubricating greases under high hertzian contact pressures using a high-
frequency linear oscillation (SRV) test machine. The SRV test machine can be seen in figure 2.15.
As can be quickly deduced, this machine is vastly more complex than the one in figure 2.14.
However, it allows for normal load, frequency and amplitude modulations while readings on the
friction behavior can be recorded.

Figure 2.15 SRV Machine and diagram [105]

In House Test Rigs

Regardless of the standards, there is also a wide variety of test rigs that have been developed by
different research groups. The type of mechanism that is used to impose the sliding motion is
perhaps the main differentiator within the plethora of designs that are reported in the literature.
Figure 2.16 shows a modular fretting test rig developed in [106], which uses a magnetorestrictive
linear actuator which can operate at frequencies up to 1000 Hz and has a maximum displacement
of 250 micro meters. Interestingly, normal load is applied via a dead weight and the setup is
modular in the sense that a range of contact configurations can be achieved.

34
Figure 2.16: Fretting test rig with magnetorestrictive actuation and multiple contact
configurations [106].

A different approach to generate the reciprocating motion is presented in [107]. Where the test rig
uses a lever arm and an electric shaker to achieve the desired displacement, see figure 2.17. Not
that in this case three contacts are evaluated simultaneously and the displacement is measured
tangentially.

Figure 2.17: Fretting test rig with electric shaker actuation through a lever arm [107].

Another interesting example of a fretting test rig can be seen in [108], here shown in figure 2.18,
where the normal load is applied via a linear electromagnetic actuator through a lever arm. In this
design the motion is imposed by a non-contact sinusoidal linear motor suspended in air bearings
and the friction forces are measured via four piezoelectric force transducers on the loading arm.
Regardless, the most interesting feature is that the specimen is enclosed by an oven that allows for
fretting testing to occur at temperatures up to 1200 C.

35
 Figure 2.18: Fretting test rig for high temperature testing [108].

Large Scale Bearings

Test rigs for large scale bearings have also been implemented. Figure 2.19 shows a large scale
pitch and yaw bearing test rig developed in [109]. The test rig allows for 3.0 MW pitch bearing
testing and 2.5 MW yaw bearing testing. Furthermore, 6 DOF freedom dynamic loading is
achieved with hydraulics and full bearing rotations can be executed. Other large scale bearing test
rigs designs can also be found in the literature.

Figure 2.19: Large scale pitch and yaw bearing test rig [109].

36
Bearing Test Rigs

Smaller scale bearing fretting test rigs, in which the cost of testing is orders of magnitude smaller
than in large scale bearing testing can also be found in the literature. The previously discussed
research by Maruyama, et al. [95], where the differences between grease lubrication and oil
lubrication are addressed, was conducted on a bearing test rig which corresponds to the diagram
shown in figure 2.20. Note that the oscillation is produced by a crank actuated with an eccentric
cam driven by a motor.

Figure 2.20: Bearing Fretting test rig as shown in Maruyama, et al. [95].

Even more closely related to the present work is the test rig employed by Schwack in [24 & 97].
A picture and a schematic of the bearing fretting test rig is presented in figure 2.21 and figure 2.22
respectively. In this test rig, a servomotor is connected, through a set of elastic couplings, to the
test shaft. The test shaft is suspended on two angular contact ball bearings subjected to an axial
load caused by a washer spring arrangement (figure 2.22). In this work, the bearing contact
conditions are scaled down in a matter that follows the A/D similarity criteria established before
[95] and has been shown to match the experimental results obtained in larger scale testing.

37
 Figure 2.21:Bearing Fretting test rig used by Schwack in [24 & 97]

Figure 2.22: Schematic of Bearing Fretting test rig used by Schwack in [24 & 97]

Another closely related test rig is found in [113]. Which was used by Stammler, et al. [113] to
study the influence that displacement sequences have on bearing wear. Note the similar angular
contact bearing configuration as in [97]. However, the axial load is now produced with a manual
hydraulic system instead.

38
Figure 2.23: Bearing Test rig used by Stammler, et al. in [113].

39
2.7 Pitch Bearings in Wind Power: The Perspective of
Fretting Damage Testing

Pitch bearings link the hub to the blade with the express purpose of allowing variable pitch
positioning of the turbine blade along its long axis, see figure 2.24. Pitch control allows for the
aerodynamic angle of attack to be varied, thus, it is used as a power control strategy in modern
wind turbines [4] and, more recently, as a structural load reduction strategy as well [5-7]. Thus,
the bearing must be able to withstand all of the reaction forces and moments that occur between
the hub and the blade. Furthermore, during its lifetime, the bearing will be subjected to unwanted
small displacement oscillations, product of changing loads and vibrations, and angular oscillations
product of the pitch control operation of the turbine. Regardless of whether the oscillations are
wanted or unwanted, they are prone to causing fretting damage (section 2.1 & 2.2).

Figure 2.24: Wind turbine blade, hub and pitch bearing [110].

Bearing Geometry and Slip

The overall architecture of a pitch bearing varies, but in general terms, double row four-point
contact slewing bearings are commonplace. Where one of the rings is attached to the hub and the
other ring is attached to the base of the blade. In figure 2.25 the cross section of a typical bearing
is presented. Note that given the contact conformity and the overall kinematics, slip will occur
through a combination of mechanisms: Heathcote slip, Reynolds Slip and Spinning Slip (See
section 2.2). These slip mechanisms, combined with when small angular displacements due to
pitch control and unwanted vibrations, can deteriorate the life of the bearing through fretting
mechanisms for which current life-time calculation approaches are uncertain and show conflicting
predictions [10]. A more detailed description of the pitch bearing is presented in [111], where an
analysis of the resulting contact angle and contact stresses behave during the service life of the
turbine is conducted.

40
Figure 2.25: Typical pitch bearing. (Reference turbine IWT 164-7.5-MW – extracted from [97])

Scaling and Bearing Simplification

Since it is extremely limiting to exclusively conduct testing with bearings that have diameters of
5 meters, Schwack, et al. [97] propose a scaling approach based on invariant contact pressures and
displacement ratios. In figure 2.26 a diagram displaying different displacement ratios and showing
the relevant parameters is presented, where 2b is the hertzian width and x is the displacement
amplitude, note that this is analogous to the A/D ratio previously introduced in [85]. By
maintaining the displacement ratio constant when downscaling, the swept area and the contact area
remain in proportion to one another, which is crucial since this greatly influences fretting behavior
(See previous sections on fretting maps, fretting regimes and lubrication in fretting). Furthermore,
contact kinematics with respect to sliding are similar, which entails that slip distribution will be
similar as well. Lastly, his approach also involves using angular contact bearings instead of four-
point contact bearings. The argument is that when loading arises, be it from a bending moment or
a normal load, the contact conditions can be emulated with an axially loaded contact ball bearing,
see figure 2.27. With this scaling methodology, load and movement data from reference turbines
[112] can be scaled down, categorized and employed to generate representative tests. Using the
same scaling approach, Stammler, et al. [113] studied the effect that displacement sequences have
on bearing wear to find that protection runs can be effective at preventing fretting wear.

Figure 2.26 Displacement Ratio Diagram [97].

41
Figure 2.27: Four-Point Contact into Angular Contact
Simplification.

42
 3 IMPLEMENTATION
The design of the new bearing fretting test rig is described. Also, the experimental set up and
procedure for the micro-slip test rig experiments are also elucidated.

Design Process: Bearing Fretting Test Rig

Development of Design Requirements and Specifications

The development of the design requirements and specifications was conducted in cooperation with
Axel Christiernsson International AB, through evaluation of previous research, both conducted
with their involvement and throughout the literature. It was determined that a machine that met the
following quantitative performance criteria would be more than satisfactory.

Requirement Specification:

• Bearing model(s): 7208 angular contact bearings

• Number of simultaneously tested bearings: 2

• Axial load range: [Min. Bearing Preload]-[40k] N

• Allowable variation in axial load during test: [5] %

• Radial load range: None.

• Angular amplitude range during fretting tests: [0.2]-[6] degrees

• Allowable amplitude variation during fretting tests: [5] %

• Angular travel to allow grease distribution and Break In: [360] degrees.

• Testing frequency range: [0.1]-[40] Hz

• Sensing: Friction torque, angular displacement, axial load and bearing temperatures.

The reasoning behind the selection of angular contact ball bearings of that size is that a body of
data exists and has been correlated to larger bearings [97, 113]. The number of simultaneously
tested bearings came as a practical consideration, inherent to using angular contact ball bearings.
The axial load and displacement amplitude range were drawn from the previously existing test rig
presented in [24 & 97] and the sensing approach would be a desirable improvement that could
yield further insight into fretting phenomena. The frequency operation range of the system was set
to ambitious values but it was considered to be a flexible ballpark constraint. It was also
established that solutions that contained the fretting phenomena exclusively within the test
bearings should be pursued, since previous experience showed that an inconvenient decrease in
reliability of the test rig would otherwise occur. Furthermore, ease of test set up and time between
testing were also to be kept in mind.

43
Functional Breakdown

Figure 3.1 shows the functional breakdown that was used to aid the concept generation procedure.
The purpose of this rather simplistic diagram is to identify the main functions that are to be
performed by the test rig on a level that allows for different alternative strategies to be formulated
addressing each of the functions independently, ultimately aiding in the concept generation stage
of the design process.

Figure 3.1: Functional Breakdown Diagram.

Concept Generation

Producing the Angular Oscillations

Since the production of angular oscillations is the cornerstone of the design, several different
alternatives were considered. Figure 3.2 shows an early schematic of a cam actuated concept. The
thinking behind this concept was that since small angular oscillations were to be attained, by virtue
of merely increasing the pivoting lever length and the eccentricity and diameter of the cam, it
would be easy to produce small angular oscillations at high frequency. This concept was eventually
discarded, not because of frequency or noise concerns, but rather because every change in
displacement amplitude for a different test would entail performing an iterative adjustment process
due to the mechanical nature of the positioning control. Four bar linkage designs would suffer the
same disadvantage.

44
 Motor Pivoting Test
Lever Bearing
Housing

Eccentric
circular
cam

Figure 3.2: Early cam concept

The implementation of alternative mechanical transmissions which would convert continuous

rotation into reciprocating rotation was briefly considered, but the associated complexity in
construction and maintenance was too large to ignore. It was finally decided that the system would
benefit from a direct drive approach, analogous to the approach seen in [24], where a servo motor
is providing both the power to generate the rotation, but at the same time is responsible for
alternating the rotation at specified amplitudes and speed. This approach allows for flexibility that
is not attainable with the use of a mechanical transmission, amplitudes can be seamlessly changed
via the motor controller and more complex waveforms can be enforced if desired. This would
allow for the study of the effect that superposition of different displacement amplitudes has on the
fretting process.

However, a problem that was previously encountered persists with the decision of driving the
system in a direct manner by linking the test shaft to the motor. Figure 3.3 illustrates the problem.
The servomotor has a motor shaft, which has bearings that, during testing, will also be subjected
to fretting inducing oscillations that will damage them. In other words, two fretting tests are being
conducted simultaneously, an intentional one on the test bearings and an undesirable one on the
servomotor bearings. To expect the motor bearings to out-live a large amount of fretting tests that
permanently damage the test bearings is unreasonable.

Test Bearings Motor Bearings

Stator Rotor

Figure 3.3: Conventional Servomotor Direct Drive

45
Figure 3.4 is drawn in a way which is intended to highlight the rather simple thought process that
led to the proposed solution. Instead of using a conventional servomotor, by exclusively mounting
the stator and rotor on the test bearings, the previous problem of unwanted fretting in the motor
bearings now becomes the actual test. At an initial glance, this solution might seem outlandish,
implying that an exhaustive motor selection process which would entail detailed, and often
confidential, internal motor information on bearing sizes and shaft diameters is necessary and
motor performance selection would be tied to geometrical considerations. This is not the case.
There are numerous companies that provide frameless motors for direct drive applications, see
figure 3.5. Stator and rotor are sold, without case, shaft or bearings to be directly integrated into
products where energy density and dynamic performance are paramount.

Motor Supported by Test Bearings

Stator Rotor

Figure 3.4: Frameless Direct Drive Motor Approach

Figure 3.5: Array of Kollmorgen KBM Frameless motors in different sizes and aspect ratios.

Besides eliminating the fretting problem on the motor bearings, the frameless direct drive concept
reduces the overall inertia of the system. Since there is no shaft redundancy, no need for compliant
couplings and only one pair of bearings, the dynamic response of the system is benefited.

46
Furthermore, the system is stiffer, in the sense that there is much less compliant material between
the rotor (input) and the bearings (output). All else equal, this increases the level of control that
can be achieved on the angular displacement of the bearings; which is different, due to compliance,
from the measured angular displacement registered at the encoder, especially under dynamic
operation. Therefore, this allows for the positioning in dynamic operation to be more dependent
on the encoder resolution and the motor controller than on the mechanical elastic system response.
In considering all of this, it was decided that the test rig would be developed around this concept.

Loading the Bearings

Multiple alternatives to enforce the axial loading were considered. Because maximum axial loads
of 4 tons are desired, directly using weights is clearly not an option. Amplifying the dead weight
load of a mass by using a lever, which thus reduces the required mass, will result in loading the
fixtures of the test rig to the bank table and it will require a more substantial bench and fixtures.
Hydraulics and other forms of linear actuation are definitely interesting and offer the possibility
of modulating the load during the test, but this increase in complexity was not viewed as warranted.
Instead, a completely analogous solution to [24] was employed, in which Belleville washers are
used to produce the axial load and the resulting compressing load is purely assimilated axially by
the test shaft. It was also determined that if a hollow shaft is used, instead of using a peripheral
arrangement of bolts and a cap to compress the disc springs, a single larger rod can be used. Thus,
allowing the load to be controlled with one bolt. This is not only more convenient but it also aids
in the concentricity of the load.

Figure 3.6: Hollow Shaft and Single Screw Axial Loading.

Supporting the bearings

Since it was established that an angular contact bearing pair was going to be employed, the only
decision left was whether to arrange them in a face-to-face or a back-to-back configuration. While
back-to-back configurations are known to better accommodate torque, because of the larger
distance between the effective centers, the are no significant moments to be expected and the lesser
sensitivity to misalignment that a face-to-face arrangement has ended up being the driving factor
in this decision.

Measuring the Angular Displacement:

A rotary encoder is a measuring device that detects angular position. In the context of the bearing
test rig, it gives position feedback to the motor controller. Encoders of different types were
evaluated, however, it was decided that a contactless encoder would be beneficial given the

47
philosophy of avoiding fretting outside of the test bearings. Furthermore, since the frameless motor
solution is closely integrated with the bearings, the encoder will be close to the lubricated bearings
and therefore should be insensitive to oil contamination. This last condition narrowed down the
encoder selection substantially. Figure 3.6 shows an inductive encoder by Zettlex, which is
insensitive to dust, oil, humidity and condensation (as opposed to optical encoders, for example),
it is very forgiving of mounting inaccuracies (0.2mm of axial leeway and 0.1mm or eccentricity),
has an operating temperature range of -40 to 85 C, and 0.007 degrees of static accuracy.
Furthermore, the form factor is particularly suited to the frameless motor concept and its open
construction allows for the gap and alignment to be visible and inspected during installation and
operation.

Figure 3.7: Inductive Encoder

Measuring Axial load and Friction Torque

The axial loading rod is ideal to be converted into a transducer via the application of strain gauges
since the strains are estimated to be sufficiently large. However, the test shaft has a very high
torsional stiffness compared to the friction torque that is intended to be measured. Therefore, a
different approach must be employed. Using an inline reaction torque transducer is not practical
in this scenario because the shaft is heavily loaded axially. The axial load tolerable for sensors that
will measure the estimated 2Nm friction torque is nowhere near 40kN. Therefore, it was decided
to measure friction torque at the motor housing by arranging load links in a force plate manner,
such that their action lines are tangent to the periphery of the case and are center-levelled with the
shaft. The friction torque is then calculated by summing or subtracting the outputs and multiplying
the result with the center distance. Figure 3.8 shows a typical biomechanics force plate to illustrate
the overdetermined sensor arrangement concept.

Figure 3.8 Biomechanics Force Plate

48
Motor Selection

The motor selection was not a straight forward process. First, because friction torque calculations
in oscillating bearing applications are not particularly reliable and second, because the speed at
which the motor can execute the oscillations is determined by not only the torque that the motor is
able to produce but also by the inertia of the system; and since the motor is only driving a single
shaft, the inertia of the motor rotor becomes significant.

Using information from previous similar experiments [24], it was found that the friction torques,
for the undamaged bearing at contact pressures of 2GPa was around 2Nm. This torque then
increases when the bearing is damaged to values up to 30Nm. Two different extreme approaches
then become clear: to use a motor with a large torque capacity that, will inevitably have a large
inertia, that allows for longer albeit lower frequency tests with more extensive damage or,
alternatively, a smaller motor with a low inertia that can perform tests at higher frequencies but
can’t provide the required torque when damage becomes too significant. The proposed design is a
compromise between these extremes.

In accordance to the motor supplier feedback, the approach to calculate the frequency at which the
motor can perform the motions is carried out by considering RMS torque values. Assuming a
sinusoidal motion profile, the following torque summation equation can be derived:

𝐴𝜋
𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑞 = [0.707 𝐽 (180) (2𝜋𝑓)2 ] + 𝑇𝑓𝑟 (3)

Where “J” is the total inertia driven (Shaft + Rotor + Coupling), “A” is the amplitude of the motion
in degrees, “f” is the frequency of the oscillation in hertz, “Tfr” is the friction torque and “Treq” is
the required torque that the motor should be able to produce continuously. The resulting term
contained in the square brackets is the RMS torque necessary to accelerate the rotating mass.

Figure 3.9 shows the motor performance according to equation (3) for the selected motor (KBM
43X03) and shaft design. The horizontal translucent red plane represents the continuous stall rated
torque of the motor (21 Nm) while the color graded surface is the torque required for a given
combination of frequency and amplitude when the friction torque is 4 Nm. The difference between
these two is the headroom available for friction increase due to damage. It is worth noting that the
motor has a peak torque of 64.5 Nm and that the performance of the motor can be roughly doubled
if liquid cooling is implemented.

49
 Figure 3.9: Motor Performance

This calculation assumes that the controller behaves ideally, does not account for inductance of
the coils in the stator, that the friction is constant and that the ambient temperature is 25 C. These
are factors that will definitely play a role in the resulting performance of the system. However,
when comparing these performance metrics with other similar test rigs, it was deemed more than
sufficient. Furthermore, the form factor of the motor was also a consideration. A classic torque
motor footprint was selected, with a skewed stator, low cogging and low harmonic distortion, in
order to achieve smooth rotation at high torques with comparatively low speeds. The motor also
has an integrated temperature sensor that can be used to automate shut down or a frequency
reduction if temperatures reach damaging levels.

Micro-Slip Testing

Experimental Set Up

Single contact reciprocal sliding fretting testing was conducted with the KTH Micro-Slip test rig.
The test rig consists of a weighted pivoting arm that presses an attached ball to a flat sample. The
flat sample is attached to a linear stage that is capable of producing controlled displacements in
the order of micro meters. The ball is attached to the pivoting arm via a 3-axis piezoelectric load
link that allows for the measurement of friction and normal forces. Displacements are validated
via an inductive gauge attached to the pivoting arm and a reference surface attached to the sample
holder. The diagram in figure 3.10 shows this set up, where the main components are the following:

1) Micro Controle Linear Stage.

2) Ball Pressed on Flat Sample (12.7mm bearing steel ball – Thrust bearing washer: NTN
WS81 106).
3) 3-Axis Piezoelectric Load Link.
4) Pivoting arm.
5) Inductive position gauge and counter-surface.

50
 4

2
5
1

Figure 3.10: Micro Slip Test Rig Diagram

Experimental Design

Testing was performed at 2 load levels: 12.5N and 90N, and at 2 displacement amplitudes: 10 and
50 micro meters. This results in A/D ratios smaller than unity. Meaning that at no point is the
original contact area completely uncovered. Although future experiments at larger displacement
amplitudes will be conducted, the ability of the lubricant to remain within the contact even when
it is never fully uncovered was definitely a focus point in these initial tests. Tests were repeated at
least 2 times. The tested lubricants, which contain no additives, are as follows:

- Lithium Complex 10 (LiX10)

- Lithium Complex 100 (LiX100)

- Polypropylene 10 (PP10)

- Polypropylene 100 (PP100)

Their respective base oils were tested separately as well:

- Polyalphaolefin 10 (PAO10)

- Polyalphaolefin 100 (PAO100)

Testing Procedure

Each test was 100 sliding cycles long. Samples were cleaned in an ultrasonic acetone bath for 30
minutes and then soaked in isopropanol for 10 minutes. Grease lubrication was applied with a
grease caliper that allowed for the deposition of a uniform 0.11mm thick film onto the flat sample.
Oil lubrication was applied via a disposable pipette. The weighted pivoting arm of the Micro-Slip
test rig was lowered via a manual vertical screw linear stage to ensure a controlled and repeatable
establishment of the contact that occurs without impacts.

51
4 RESULTS
This section shows the resulting design of the bearing test rig. A summary of experimental results
obtained in the Micro-Slip testing of a singular contact are also presented on the second half of
the section.

Bearing Test Rig: Resulting Design

A bearing test rig aimed to study the effect of small amplitude angular oscillations on bearings that
emulate the contact conditions of wind power pitch bearings is presented. A render of the design
of the bearing test rig can be seen in figure 4.1. A frameless motor, responsible for producing the
controlled angular fretting motions is contained within the central aluminum case. The case is
suspended on four load links for accurate friction torque measurements. The bearings are
supported within two split housings so as to allow easy access and are visible during operation. A
cross section diagram is displayed in figure 4.2, where some of the main components are numbered
and a more detailed explanation follows.

Figure 4.1: Bearing Test Rig Render

52
 Figure 4.2: Cross Section view of the Bearing Test Rig.

The highlighted numbered components are as follows:

1- Axial load threaded rod and nuts.

2- Disc springs and enclosure (2x).
3- Split bearing housing (2x).
4- Bearing mounting-dismounting wedged nut (2x).
5- Test Bearing (2x).
6- Hollow Shaft.
7- Zettlex Incoder (Inductive Encoder).
8- Frameless Motor Housing.
9- Frameless Motor Stator (KBMs 43X03).
10- Frameless Motor Rotor ((KBM 43X03).
11- Fenner Drives BCH20 (2x).

Axial Load

The axial load is produced by 20 disc springs part number 4398 by Lesjöfors (Item 2, in figure
4.2). A single disc produces a load of more than 22kN when deflected 1.6mm. Therefore, by adding
2 in parallel (nested), at the same deflection they will produce more than 44kN. 10 of these pairs
are then combined in series. This gives the same 44kN load but at 16mm of deflection. This makes
the applied and sustained load less sensitive to small variations in deflection. The axial threaded
rod is 14mm in diameter and can be rated at either grade 8.8 or 10.9 which gives a proof load of

53
66.7kN or 95.5kN, respectively, which should be sufficient. Furthermore, the enclosure for the
disc springs has slots that allow for the deflection to be observed and marked.

Bearing Mounting-Dismounting Wedge Assembly

To facilitate the mounting and dismounting of the bearings, while minimizing the damage of
repeated press fitted assemblies to the shaft seats, a wedge nut assembly (figure 4.3) is proposed.
The wedge angle is based on SKF mounting sleeves for bearings with a tapered bore.

Figure 4.3: Bearing Mounting Wedge Nut and Tapered Bushing.

It is important to remember that the shaft must be locked in place, by using the shaft clamps (item
11 in figure 4.2), prior to the removal of the bearings, this is due to the fact that these are the only
bearings supporting the motor rotor and the shaft.

Motor Housing and Shaft Clamps

The motor housing is designed based on the motor supplier specifications. It is recommended, for
heat transfer purposes, that the housing should be made of an aluminium alloy. The construction
consists of a main cylinder with a single inner diameter step reduction, against which the stator is
positioned (see figure 4.2, items 8 and 9). Two caps are then bolted to the ends to enclose the
motor, see figure 4.4. The stator is fixed to the housing via Loctite, as per manufacturer
recommendation.

The shaft clamps are two commercial rotor-hub connections that attach to the housing (item 11 in
figure 4.2 and also highlighted in figure 4.4). They serve the purpose of locking the shaft in place
while bearings are replaced. Being self-centering in nature, they aid in maintaining rotor
concentricity and alignment in between tests and assist in the bearing-less first installation of the
system. Furthermore, when released, the gap to the shaft can be controlled and kept below the
motor air gap. This is intended to work as a safety measure in case of sudden bearing failure, since
the shaft will touch the clamp before the rotor touches the stator. There are slits on one of the caps
to allow visual inspection of the motor air gap. The case also has two lateral fins to attach the load
sensors and a couple of eyebolts to both assist in handling the assembly and facilitate the
verification of torque readings by applying a known mass.

54
 Shaft
Clamp

Figure 4.4: Frameless Motor Case with Shaft Clamping Attachments

Encoder Mounting

The encoder stator is attached with bolts to the outside of the case, see figure 4.5. The encoder
rotor is bolted to a commercial clamp that is then attached to the shaft via an adjustable coupling.
This coupling is free to slide axially on the shaft until three set screws are tightened. These set
screws also allow for minor eccentricity adjustments. The clamp can be used to perform axial
adjustments while maintaining concentricity. The coupling allows for access to the screws of the
shaft clamps but if that is deemed not sufficient, one of the set screws can be loosened and the
encoder rotor can be displaced axially outwards and full access to the shaft clamp is available. The
rotor can be then repositioned by tightening just one screw and concentricity should be relatively
maintained.

Encoder Encoder Encoder

Clamp Rotor Stator

Adjustable Shaft
Coupling Clamp

Figure 4.5: Encoder Mounting

55
Shaft and Motor Rotor Coupling.

Figure 4.6 shows an exploded view of the shaft-motor connection. A Motor-Shaft Coupling is built
to match the axially oriented screw arrangement on the KBM (Motor Rotor). The fit between the
Motor-Shaft Coupling and the shaft is a sliding fit that allows for the assembly to slide on the shaft
towards its shoulder. The shaft shoulder has an arrangement of axially oriented threaded holes
which serve to complete the assembly. Note that the Motor-Shaft Coupling has additional threaded
holes for extraction of the motor by pushing off of the shoulder.

Motor
Rotor
Motor-Shaft
Coupling

Insert Shoulder

Figure 4.6: Shaft and Motor Coupling.

Torque Measuring

The torque measurement takes place via 4 piezoelectric load links that support the motor housing,
at 116mm from the shaft axis, see figure 4.7. Piezoelectric sensors are ideal for dynamic
measurements. However, the type 9321b Kistler piezoelectric load links provide a bidirectional
measuring range of 10kN, equivalent to roughly 1000Nm of torque which the motor will never be
able to produce. This is larger than needed but they were selected assuming the rotor would touch
the stator, thus producing a shear load on the sensors, worst case, that smaller sensors would not
be guaranteed to handle (if load distribution between them is not favourable). However, further
experience might reveal that they are over-dimensioned and the type 9311b is sufficient. Even if
over-dimensioned, the response threshold of 0.02N is more than sufficient to measure the expected
friction torques and the lower calibration range of 100N is ideal.

56
 Figure 4.7: Load Sensor Array

The Motion Control System

The motion control system consists of a KBM 43X03 motor, its corresponding AKD drive unit
and the Zettlex inductive encoder that provides position feedback with a resolution of 0.007
degrees. The AKD drive (Figure 4.7), which has an update rate of 1.5MHz, can be programmed
via PC with virtual cam profiles that are then executed by the motor. A full motion control software
suite is provided with the drive unit, which allows to tune the control parameters and to monitor
the ongoing test. Furthermore, torque measurements can be double checked by comparing them to
current measurements reported by the drive.

Figure 4.8: AKD Servo drive

57
Micro-Slip Test Results

The results presented in this section are a subset of the totality of completed experiments up to the
present day, experiments are still ongoing and data is currently being analysed further. However,
clear distinctions in the friction behavior of the different lubrication samples has been found and
this subset of data is intended to highlight the detected differences. Thus, both fretting loops and
fretting logs are presented in comparisons (see section on Fretting Maps). The fretting loops are a
two-dimensional representation of the experiment and allow for examining, in detail, the friction
behavior over a small subset of cycles, while the three-dimensional fretting logs provide a gross
overview of the whole test.

Oil vs Grease

Within the samples evaluated, a distinct friction behavior is obtained between oil and grease tests,
regardless of the base oil viscosity and the thickener type. Oils showed a rather stable friction
behavior from the onset of the test, which displays a crisp maximum breakaway friction force and
a slightly lower friction force during sliding. On the contrary, greases showed a transient period of
soft breakaway and a noticeable smaller friction during sliding (See figures 4.9 & 4.10), which
leads to a slight increase in sliding distance (at the same testing imposed displacement). As the test
progresses, the friction behavior of the grease approaches in resemblance to that of its base oil.
The behavior for the PP thickener is completely analogous (see figures 4.11 & 4.12).

58
Figure 4.9: LiX100 and PAO100 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 50um /
A/D=0.63)

59
Figure 4.10: LiX10 and PAO10 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 50um /
A/D=0.63)

60
Figure 4.11: PP100 and PAO100 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 50um /
A/D=0.63)

61
Figure 4.12: PP10 and PAO10 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 50um /
A/D=0.63).

Base Oil Viscosity

If the previous figures (4.10-12) are examined more thoroughly, it can be noted that for both
thickener agents, although its significantly more pronounced for the lithium complex, the lower
viscosity base oil grease sample takes a noticeably larger cycle count to reach the behavior of its
base oil, when compared to the higher viscosity base oil grease. The same behavior is amplified
for smaller A/D ratios (See figure 4.13-4.16). Again, the effect of the thickener producing a
different and lower friction response when compared to the isolated base oil is observed.

62
Furthermore, it is now prolonged for the totality of the test at these smaller displacement
amplitudes, again, with the lower base oil viscosity grease showing a slower progression towards
the base oil friction behavior and a lower starting friction as well, especially for the Lithium
Complex thickened grease. This might suggest that thickener structure might be playing a
significant part in terms of the friction response.

Figure 4.13: LiX100 and PAO100 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 10um /
A/D=0.13)

63
Figure 4.14: LiX10 and PAO10 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 10um /
A/D=0.13)

64
Figure 4.15: PP100 and PAO100 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 10um /
A/D=0.13)

65
Figure 4.16: PP10 and PAO10 (Mean Contact Pressure = 0.64GPa / Amplitude= 10um /
A/D=0.13)

Thickener

If, instead of comparing each of the greases with their respective base oil, the comparison is made
with regards to the thickener type, it continues to become apparent that the lithium thickener
extends this transient soft-breakaway period to larger cycle counts, especially with the lower
viscosity base oil. In that regard, figure 4.15 show how the PP grease lubricated contact gets stuck
while the LiX lubricated contact remains in gross slip for higher cycle counts, analogous to the
behavior of previous shorter experiments. Figure 4.17 show longer tests of 1000 cycles and
conducted at a higher contact pressure. It is worth noting that in figure 4.17, for 300 cycles, the

66
shape of the fretting loop for the PP100, where the friction increases towards the end of the sliding
stroke in both directions, has been associated previously with adhesive damage.

Figure 4.17: LiX10, PP10, LiX100 and PP100 (Mean Contact Pressure = 1.2 GPa / Amplitude=
50um / A/D=0.33)

67
 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
A discussion of the results and the conclusions, pertaining to both the proposed Bearing Test Rig
design and the single contact reciprocal sliding Micro-Slip testing are presented.

5.1 Discussion

Bearing Fretting Test Rig Discussion

Frameless Concept

The concept of directly driving a fretting test rig with a servomotor is not new [24, 97, 113],
however, the idea of directly mounting the main motor components directly on the test shaft in
order to avoid fretting damage in non-test bearings is novel, as far as the author is aware. Although
an unorthodox approach, it presents benefits beyond of avoiding motor bearing damage and
replacement; such as an improved dynamic performance, based on inertia reductions and increased
stiffness. Both a product of eliminating the motor shaft, any intermediate shafts and additional
coupling components. Furthermore, the fact that the only bearings in the system are the test
bearings means that current measurements, from the motor controller, are actually more
representative of the friction torque behavior of the studied tribosystem, since no parasitic
additional friction exists due to the now redundant non-tested bearings.

The frameless motor concept also poses some important considerations regarding the correct
positioning of the rotor. The selected motor has an air gap of 0.64 mm that must be maintained,
even though the motor has protective linings on both the rotor and stator. However, it must be
noted that the tolerances for the bearings employed are one order of magnitude tighter than those
for the motor are. With this in mind, the selected self-centering shaft-hub connections that are
attached to the case and allow for the shaft to be fixed while bearings are replaced might be an
unnecessary excess in precaution. Further experience might reveal that a more relaxed approach
in terms of tolerances on the clamping system might still be sufficient.

Open Design

The proposed design allows direct visibility and access to the bearings. This is useful because ball
and cage migration during the fretting tests can now be observed directly and even recorded.
Furthermore, ease of visualizing the grease distribution during the test and even the potential to
re-lubricate without having to disassemble are definitely interesting features. Furthermore, the
proposed design implies that bearing replacement is simple. Both thanks to the open bearing split
housing and the wedge nut assembly that only needs to be untightened to release the bearings from
the shaft, once the shaft is locked in place with the proposed self-centering clamping solution.

68
Testing in Harsh Environmental Conditions

Although never stated as a formal quantitative requirement, but rather as an aspect to be kept in
mind for future adaption, low temperature testing is an important and understudied aspect of
lubricant performance in pitch bearings. In the current design, both the sensing equipment and the
motor can be used down to - 40C. In fact, the motor dynamic performance, which is limited by
temperature, actually improves at low temperatures. The present design, therefore, shows the
potential to be readily adapted to operate in low temperature testing conditions that better reflect
certain real operation conditions of pitch bearings. Furthermore, the selected encoder is completely
insensitive to humidity and can even be operated while submerged. The motor itself, which has
often been used in military applications, is rated for 95% relative humidity (no condensation).

Scaling

The scaling employed is the one employed by Schwack in [97], so is the selected bearing type and
size. The approach has already generated a body of data that has been compared to larger reference
pitch bearings. This allows the test rig to be validated and produce data that builds on the already
existing body of knowledge. Furthermore, it allows a more direct comparison of lubrication
performance between the new tests and the existing experimental data.

Micro-Slip Testing Discussion

Role of the Thickener Agent and Base Oil Viscosity

Friction results show particularly distinctive behaviors for grease and oil lubrication. Where the
thickener appears to play a more involved role, than that of an environmental barrier and a
temperature triggered base oil reservoir, and that this effect is amplified when the base oil viscosity
is lower. In 2017, Maruyama et al. [95], in trying to explain the differences between grease and oil
lubrication in fretting contacts, proposed that a thickener film, estimated to be around 30 times
more viscous than the base oil, plays a role in the fretting damage progression. It was also reported
that the effect of the thickener was seen at A/D > 1.0 when a low viscosity base oil is used and it
was ultimately reported that the main driving parameter for this behavior was oil separation. Where
the current working explanation is that an increased oil separation, whether obtained via a lower
base oil viscosity or a higher worked penetration, allows a large proportion of base oil to readily
be ejected from the contact, leaving behind a layer of grease that has a higher thickener
concentration and which will form the previously mentioned thickener layer. Since their analysis
pertains to damage and no friction figures are reported, it is possible that the influence on friction
that the thickener is displaying in the present micro-slip experiments, at even lower A/D ratios, is
related to the mechanism described in [95]. It is also worth noting that it is not possible to directly
transfer the results obtained in [95] since testing was not pure reciprocal sliding, exclusively urea
compound thickener was used (which is difficult to obtain in Europe), higher contact pressures
than what the present test rig can safely handle were used and the word friction is not mentioned
in the publication. Furthermore, the fact that the PP thickener showed less capacity to sustain its

69
influence when compared to the LiX, although it might be driven by bleeding rate, it could very
well be the case that the structural properties of the thickener and/or its ability to interact and stick
to the metal surfaces may play a significant role as well. In [97] it was also reported that an
improvement was found in fretting wear for lower viscosity high bleeding rate greases on average.
Since commercial greases (with additives) were used, it is interesting that this overall impression
is still reinforced.

5.2 Conclusions

Bearing Test Rig Conclusions

- A bearing test rig design that emulates the contact conditions of wind power pitch bearings,
according to the scaling approach employed in [97], has been proposed. Axially loaded
angular contact bearings are subjected small angular oscillations via a frameless servo
motor supported exclusively on the test bearings. This should greatly limit fretting
phenomena to the test bearings.

- The frameless motor concept is posed to offer several advantages over previous direct-
drive servomotor approaches. The absence of motor bearings subjected to fretting damage
being the obvious one, but also a lower inertia, higher stiffness and more accurate current
torque measuring are welcomed outcomes of this concept.

- The proposed sensor strategy is intended to yield high resolution friction torque
measurements that have the potential to increase our understanding of fretting damage
progression and also facilitate the development of lubrication strategies that better adapt to
these operating conditions. By analysing both friction and the resulting wear, a more
complete picture of the phenomena can be obtained.

- The ability to independently select an encoder was especially beneficial in terms of harsh
operating conditions.

- The ability to quickly release the bearings by untightening the wedge nut and washer
assembly is a major improvement in terms of ease of repeated use over regular bearing
mounting methods. However, this proposal must be tested and verified before the motor is
installed.

- The option of enhancing the dynamic performance of the system by modifying the motor
housing and implementing liquid cooling is welcomed. This allows for a concept that
already has dynamic performance advantages to reach twice the continuous stall torque
while maintaining the same inertia. Lower temperature testing, at least in terms of the
motor, can thus actually contribute to the dynamic performance.

70
 - The benefits obtained from frameless motor concept inevitably come with a set of
challenges as well. For example, the correct functioning of the clamping system that
supports the shaft while the bearings are replaced is instrumental to the correct operation
of the machine. This subsystem should be tested before the motor is installed.

Micro-Slip Testing Conclusions

All of the presented conclusions are limited to early onset of fretting and the experimental
conditions described previously. Further testing and analysis are currently on-going. Therefore,
the validity and reach of these conclusions is yet to be cemented, but they can be viewed as a
starting point in approaching where to aim with future experiments and test rig improvements.

- Grease and oil lubrication showed different friction behaviors in fretting conditions. Where
grease tended to display an overall lower friction and a soft breakaway when compared to
oil lubrication during an early transient period at the end of which the behavior became
similar to that of its respective base oil.

- Experiments at the lowest amplitude ratio highlighted and prolonged the grease transient
behavior. This suggests that it might be related to thickener structure.

- This grease transient behavior was accentuated when lower viscosity base oils were
employed and also was more prominent for the Lithium Complex thickened greases rather
than in Polypropylene thickened greases. The degree on which this is a product of the
thickener mechanical properties, its ability to interact and stick to the surfaces or a product
of different oil separation levels remains unclear.

- Lithium Complex thickened grease, with the lowest base oil viscosity level, showed the
least amount of propensity towards sticking behavior, within the tested conditions.

71
 6 RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE WORK
In this chapter, recommendations and future work are presented. Comments on proceeding with
the test rig construction and updates to the Micro-Slip test rig and future testing avenues are
discussed.

Bearing Test Rig Recommendations and Future Work

The current design must be subjected to further scrutiny before proceeding with the component
acquisition and construction. Special care should be taken with the proposed clamping system and
the bearing mounting wedge nut. Both of these need to be tested and validated before the motor is
installed in its case. This can be done by testing shaft alignment after repeated bearing installations
along with their respective case-shaft locking. Therefore, construction should start with the bearing
support and axial loading system. This also facilitates the validation of the strain gauge strategy to
measure axial load.

Construction of the motor case should be done with special consideration of the manufacturers
literature. Both tolerances and gaps to the windings are important considerations to insure the
proper functioning of the system. Furthermore, the correct adhesive must be used to mount the
frameless motor, as per manufacturer specification as well.

As it is the case with any conceptual shift that offers potential advantages, it must be kept in mind
that this is a first embodiment of this concept and potentially unforeseen problems should be
hunted down with particular vigor during the whole future implementation phase of the project.

Micro-Slip Testing Recommendations and Future Work

User familiarity with the equipment is paramount and it takes a relatively large number of
experiments to develop affinity with the equipment and develop consistent procedures; which are
both necessary in order to obtain reliable results. Furthermore, caution should be exercised when
programming the stages, for any uncontrolled large motion can damage the setup by either
overloading the piezoelectric load link, damaging the inductive position gauge and/or damaging
the stage. This fact should be a future consideration when improving the set-up, as this is
unnecessary.

Further improvements of the test rig should also include:

- Ensuring independence of normal load and friction force: The current test rig consists of
a weighted pivoting arm. Its pivoting point is above the contact plane and therefore, when
a friction force is generated, it also creates a moment that increases or decreases the normal

72
 force. A solution could be to change the orientation of the linear motion such that it is
parallel to the axis of rotation of the arm, but the current bench would need to be modified.

- Reconsider the Linear Stage Type: Currently the linear stage is a mechanical, screw-driven,
stage supported by linear rolling guides. Although remarkably accurate, with good velocity
stability and extremely stiff, it might not be an ideal approach for a fretting test rig. First,
because repeatedly testing within small displacements is prone to deteriorate or
permanently damage the stage, especially for higher cycle testing. Second, accelerated
wear testing and studies on the influence of sliding speed are problematic because the
acceleration of the stage is the main limiting parameter at these small displacements. The
magnetorestrictive actuator employed in [106] is an example of a perhaps more suitable
approach to imposing the fretting motion.

- The current resolution for friction force measuring must be maintained: Any changes to
the linear motion generation must not compromise the current quality of the friction
measurements. The velocity stability and the stiffness of the linear actuator are
instrumental for clean friction readings.

- Measuring the contact resistance: A multi-meter module is currently awaiting installation.

This would aid verifying if, at any of the displacement amplitudes and speeds evaluated, a
film is separating the surfaces.

Improvements in the processing of the generated data and defining an approach to statistically
analyze and present the data are pending. Further experiments should be conducted at higher A/D
ratios and with different speeds. Different greases and oils, including additives and solid lubricants,
should be tested as well, both in the micro-slip test rig, and also in terms of other parameters, such
as seizure load and worked penetration. An interesting test would be to evaluate greases with
similar worked penetrations and base oil viscosities but with different thickener agent. As a mean
to discern which attributes of the grease are responsible for the difference in friction response.

Although the results obtained appear to reflect those found in [94], [95] and [97], longer tests and
damage evaluations are necessary in order to find whether the detected early friction behaviors can
lead to quick assessments on the lifetime performance of the tribological system, which could be
developed into a useful screening approach that would accelerate grease development for fretting
prone applications.

73
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239, 2000, p 237–243

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EHL point contacts. Tribology International, 43(8), 1279-1286.

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contacts. Wear, 273(1), 70-74.

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[91] D. Godfrey, A study of fretting wear in mineral oil, Lubr. Eng. 12 (1) (1956) 37–42.

[92] Wang, Z., & Zhou, Z. (2009). An investigation of fretting behavior of several synthetic base
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81
APPENDIX A: PROJECT GANTT CHART & DETAIL
BREAKDOWN TABLE

82
83
WBS Type Name Symbol Done Label Description Start date End date
1 Milestone ACI Samples Arrival Diamond Yes Orange 2020-01-22

2 Milestone Preliminary Report (1/3) Diamond No Orange Presents a problem definition & 2020-02-19
justification statement, scope and
a background review structure
and methodology.

3 Milestone Preliminary Report (2/3) Diamond No Orange Presents micro-slip testing 2020-03-26
results so far with their
corresponding analysis and
Concept Evaluation and
Selection. Completed literature
background.
4 Milestone Manuscript Submitted Diamond No Red Full manuscript covering the full 2020-05-14
For Revision (3/3) extent of the project.
5 Milestone Presentation Submission Diamond No Red 2020-05-14

6 Milestone Presentation Approval Diamond No Orange 2020-05-27

7 Activity Background Literature No Grey 2020-01-06 2020-03-08

Review
7.1 Activity Pitch Bearings No Grey 2020-01-06 2020-02-25

7.2 Activity Fretting Damage No Grey 2020-01-06 2020-03-08

Experiments
7.3 Activity Fretting Theory No Grey 2020-01-06 2020-03-08

7.4 Activity Lubrication Under No Grey 2020-01-06 2020-03-08

Fretting Inducing
Conditions
8 Activity Micro-Slip Test Rig No Purple 2020-01-03 2020-02-28
Setup
8.1 Activity Hardware Installation / No Purple 2020-01-03 2020-02-21
Adapt Upgrades
8.2 Activity Virtual Instrument Yes Purple 2020-01-06 2020-01-31
Development
8.3 Activity Pre-Experimental Test No Purple 2020-01-17 2020-02-28
Runs
8.4 Activity Rig Validation No Purple 2020-01-24 2020-02-28

8.5 Activity Rig Modifications No Purple 2020-01-24 2020-02-21

9 Activity Micro-Slip Testing Yes Purple 2020-01-06 2020-01-30

Protocol Design
9.1 Activity Lubricant Samples Yes Purple 2020-01-06 2020-01-24
Determination
9.2 Activity Frequency, Amplitude Yes Purple 2020-01-06 2020-01-30
and Normal Force
Strategy
9.3 Activity Breakaway friction time Yes Purple 2020-01-06 2020-01-30
and load parameters
10 Activity Micro-Slip Testing No Purple 2020-03-02 2020-05-08

11 Activity Micro-Slip Testing: No Purple 2020-03-02 2020-05-10

Results Analysis
11.1 Activity Acquired Data Processing No Purple 2020-03-02 2020-05-10
/ Fretting Maps
Generation
12 Activity Bearing Test Rig: No Green 2020-01-13 2020-02-28
Requirement
Specification
12.1 Activity General Requirements No Green 2020-01-13 2020-02-28

84
12.2 Activity Contact Conditions: No Green 2020-01-13 2020-02-28
Bearing Type, Loading
and Fretting Parameters
12.3 Activity Measurement Strategy No Green 2020-01-13 2020-02-28

13 Activity Bearing Test Rig: No Green 2020-02-10 2020-03-17

Conceptual Design
13.1 Activity State of the Art Review No Green 2020-02-10 2020-03-09

13.2 Activity Raw Concept Generation No Green 2020-02-10 2020-03-09

13.3 Activity Concept Classification No Green 2020-03-02 2020-03-17

14 Activity Bearing Test Rig: No Green 2020-03-01 2020-03-31

Concept Evaluation
14.1 Activity Preliminary Concept No Green 2020-03-01 2020-03-15
Evaluation / Narrow
down potential designs
14.2 Activity Rigorous Evaluation and No Green 2020-03-16 2020-03-31
Selection of a Concept
Strategy
15 Activity Bearing Test Rig: No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30
Detailed Design
15.1 Activity Relevant Modelling No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-15

15.2 Activity Tolerancing & No Green 2020-04-16 2020-04-30

Dimensioning
15.3 Activity Actuation System Spec No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30

15.4 Activity Sensing Architecture No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30

15.5 Activity Data Acquisition Spec No Green 2020-04-16 2020-04-30

16 Activity Bearing Test Rig: No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30

Deliverables Production
16.1 Activity Final CAD Master No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30
Assembly Generation
16.2 Activity Model Library No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30

16.3 Activity Drawing Generation No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30

16.4 Activity Cost Structure No Green 2020-04-22 2020-04-30

16.5 Activity Final Sensors and No Green 2020-04-01 2020-04-30

Hardware Spec
17 Activity Presentation No Green 2020-05-02 2020-06-05

17.1 Activity Slides Generation No Green 2020-05-02 2020-05-08

17.2 Activity Presentation Review No Green 2020-05-09 2020-05-20

17.3 Activity Thesis Defense No Green 2020-05-25 2020-06-05

18 Activity Thesis Report (1/3) No Blue 2020-01-25 2020-02-20

19 Activity Thesis Report (2/3) No Blue 2020-02-24 2020-03-18

20 Activity Thesis Report (3/3) No Blue 2020-04-04 2020-05-14

85
 APPENDIX B: PROJECT RISK ANALYSIS

Risk Probability Consequence Action

Delayed experiments Purchase Newport

Linear Stage Failure High
and massive cost Replacement

Unusable Experiment
Load Sensor Drift High Follow Kistler Procedure
Data & Delay

Delayed experiments
Load Sensor Failure Low Purchase new load link
and massive cost

Corrupted Force Improve table damping and

Table Vibrations Medium
Readings fixtures

Inductive Gauge Replacements are readily

Low Slight Delay
Failure available

Micro-Slip Worst Case: Stage and

Medium See Above
Programming Error Load Sensor Failure

Delayed Lub. Sample Delayed experiments

Low Contact ACI
Arrival until arrival

86