Early failure analysis of rolling mill bearing based on elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory

Elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) theory was applied to investigate the effect of inner lubrication behavior on service-life of the rolling mill bearings under heavy load, and the approaches to increase service-life via improving lubrication capacity were analyzed with oil film parameter theory and correction life theory. The results show that bearings lubrication condition at the case of high temperature and low rotational speed is very poor, which results in contact wear and is the cause of early failure. Decreasing surface roughness of both contact bodies is an effective measure to settle this problem when other application parameters such as load, lubricant viscosity, and rotational speed are unchangeable.