10

10.1 GENERAL

Failure and Damage Modes in Rolling Bearings

Although ball and roller bearings appear to be relatively simple mechanisms, their internal operations are relatively complex as witnessed by the number of pages devoted by Rolling Bearing Analysis, 5th Ed. to the evaluation of their design and operation. It has been established in these pages that rolling bearings can perform in many applications without interruption of successful operation, provided:
. . .

. .

The bearing selected for the given application is of correct design and sufficient size. The bearing is properly mounted on the shaft and in the housing. The bearing lubrication system is of proper design; the lubricant film thicknesses generated are sufficient to adequately separate the rolling contact surfaces; and the amount of lubricant supplied is sufficient. Lubrication of rolling elementcage and cagebearing ring land interfaces is adequate. The bearing is operated at speeds consistent with the lubrication method such that overheating is prevented. The bearing is protected from the ingress of contaminants.

It has also been established that, in many applications, it is possible to accommodate these conditions. In some applications, however, the conditions for application design functional performance and endurance are not met due to:
.

Extreme operating conditions of heavy or complex loading, very high speed or accelerations, and very high or very low operating temperatures to cite a few

and, perhaps,
.

Insufficient attention to proper machinery assembly and operating practice.

Operation under such conditions will very frequently lead to early bearing failure, and possibly early machinery failure. As implied above, rolling bearing failure can be defined as not meeting the design requirements of the application. Thus, failure can manifest itself as: 1. Excessive deflection 2. Excessive vibration or noise

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3. Unacceptably high friction torque and temperature, or 4. Bearing seizure Actually, conditions 13, singly or in combination, may lead to the last. Very likely, conditions 13 are the result of damage to the rolling contact surfaces. The likelihood of such damage in a given application can, in the best circumstance, be predicted and consequently avoided using the analytical techniques contained in this text. In the worst instance, the reason(s) for early failure can be found through such analyses. The purpose of this chapter is to elucidate the various types of damage and failure that may occur in rolling bearing applications and to connect these to the physical phenomena that cause them.

10.2 BEARING FAILURE DUE TO FAULTY LUBRICATION 10.2.1 INTERRUPTION

OF

LUBRICANT SUPPLY

TO

BEARINGS

Most ball and roller bearing failures are caused by interruption of the lubricant supply to the bearing or inadequate delivery of the lubricant to the rolling elementraceway contacts in the first place. In the aircraft gas turbine engine mainshaft application, in which engine failure is considered life-critical, ball and roller bearing cages are coated with silver. In the event of temporary loss of lubricant supplied to the bearings, some silver is transferred to the rolling element surfaces, providing increased lubricity and lower coefficient of friction than steel-onsteel. Also, in the latter instance, bearings that have silicon nitride rolling elements experience lower friction in both the rolling elementraceway and rolling elementcage contacts than do bearings that have steel rolling elements.

10.2.2 THERMAL IMBALANCE

During operation of ball and roller bearings, it is important that the temperature gradient between the bearing inner and outer raceways is maintained such that radial preloading does not occur. This condition leads to increased rolling elementraceway loading, increased friction, and increased temperatures. If the rate of heat dissipation from the bearing outer ring is greater than that from the inner ring, a temperature excursion occurs, resulting in bearing seizure. Heat generation in other components of an application is frequently greater than that generated by bearing operation; for example, the heat generated by the windings in an electric motor. In this case, it is important that the paths for heat transfer are designed such that the temperature gradient across the bearing does not result in a thermal excursion. High friction is also caused by excessive amounts of sliding in a bearing. This condition can occur as a result of rollingraceway contacts that operate in the boundary lubrication regime. In other words, the lubricant film thicknesses formed in the rolling elementraceway contacts do not sufficiently separate the rolling/sliding components, allowing the interaction of surface asperities on the contacting bodies. High friction also occurs in solid-film-lubricated bearings; for example, bearings lubricated with molybdenum disulfide. The first stage of excessive friction heat generation is lubricant oxidation and degradation. In this case, the lubricant changes to darker colors, eventually becoming black and having even greater friction; see Figure 10.1. Lubricant overheating and oxidation can also lead to chemical deposits on, and discoloration of, rolling elements as shown in Figure 10.2 as well as rings as illustrated in Figure 10.3 and cage in Figure 10.4. As the bearing component temperatures increase, the hardness of bearing ring and rolling element steels decreases, giving rise to loss of elasticity and resulting in plastic deformations

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FIGURE 10.1 Grease-lubricated ball bearing showing lubricant oxidation. (Courtesy NTN.)

(see Figure 10.5 through Figure 10.7). Ultimately, heat imbalance failure leads to breakage of bearing components and bearing seizure as illustrated in Figure 10.8 through Figure 10.10. Bearing seizure is obviously a complete loss of bearing function and, most likely, machinery function. This type of failure can be catastrophic in life-critical applications; for example, automobile wheel bearings and helicopter power transmission bearings to name a few.

FIGURE 10.2 Hard organic coating on balls formed by grease polymerization due to high temperature caused by sliding under high contact stresses.

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FIGURE 10.3 Discoloration and oxidation of bearing ring due to overheating of bearing during operation.

10.3 FRACTURE OF BEARING RINGS DUE TO FRETTING

For applications involving shaft rotation, bearing inner rings are usually press-fitted or shrink-fitted on the shaft to prevent ring rotation about the shaft due to operation under applied loading. For outer ring rotation applications such as automobile wheel bearings, the bearing outer ring is usually mounted in its housing with an interference fit to prevent ring rotation relative to the housing during bearing operation. The inner ring rotation about the shaft or the outer ring rotation relative to the housing is generally a small intermittent motion occasioned by the circumferential spacing of the rolling elements. If the interference fitting is insufficient to prevent this motion, a condition called fretting occurs. Fretting is a chemical

FIGURE 10.4 Machine tool ball bearing phenolic cage: (a) original color and (b) discolored and oxidized due to overheating of bearing during operation.

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FIGURE 10.5 Tapered roller bearingdeformed cone, rollers, and cage due to heat imbalance failure.

attack on the surfaces in relative motion, and it entails localized removal of material called fretting corrosion or fretting wear. Figure 10.10 and Figure 10.11 show bearing rings with fretting. This corrosion or wear can result in ring cracking as shown in Figure 10.12. Hence, fretting corrosion on bearing ring surfaces can lead to loss of bearing function and potential catastrophic failure.

FIGURE 10.6 Spherical roller bearingdeformed inner raceways and rollers due to heat imbalance failure.

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FIGURE 10.7 Cylindrical roller bearingtransformation of rollers into balls due to heat imbalance failure.

FIGURE 10.8 Cylindrical roller bearingbreakage of cage due to heat imbalance failure.

FIGURE 10.9 Deep-groove ball bearingbreakage of cage and balls due to heat imbalance failure.

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FIGURE 10.10 Fretting corrosion in the bore of a bearing inner ring.

10.4 BEARING FAILURE DUE TO EXCESSIVE THRUST LOADING

Excessive thrust loading in a ball bearing can cause the balls to ride over the ring land as shown in Figure 10.13. This causes the raceway area to be truncated resulting in much higher contact stress, much higher surface friction shear stress, and rapid bearing failure due to

FIGURE 10.11 Fretting corrosion on the outside diameter of a bearing outer ring.

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FIGURE 10.12 Cracking of a ball bearing outer ring due to fretting corrosion.

overheating. Figure 10.14 provides a postmortem view of the inner and outer raceway patterns. Excessive thrust loading in tapered roller and spherical roller bearings results in greatly magnified rollerraceway loading and early subsurface-initiated fatigue failure (see later sections).

10.5 BEARING FAILURE DUE TO CAGE FRACTURE

In Chapter 7 of the first volume of this handbook, it was indicated that interference fitting of the inner ring on the shaft or the outer ring in the housing in a radial ball or roller

FIGURE 10.13 Ball bearing inner ring with rolled over left side land due to very heavy applied thrust loading.

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FIGURE 10.14 Postmortem diagram of inner and outer raceway in a ball bearing operated with excessive thrust loading.

bearing results in the loss of radial clearance. Also, if the inner raceway runs hotter than the outer raceway, then radial clearance is also reduced. If radial clearance is lost completely and radial interference occurs during bearing operation, loading between the bearing cage and the rolling elements may become excessive and cause breakage of the cage. This is illustrated in Figure 10.15 and Figure 10.16. In the event of cage fracture, fragments may break off and wedge themselves between the rolling elements and raceways, causing increased friction, overheating, and bearing seizure. This can be a catastrophic-type failure. Postmortem examination of the bearing raceways in such a case would reveal that the inner raceway was somewhat wider than the design, and the outer raceway extends a complete 3608 as shown in Figure 10.17. This indicates excessive radial preload as the cause of bearing failure. Cage fracture can also occur due to excessive misalignment in the bearing during operation. This places high fore-and-aft axial loading on the cage causing the breakage. The postmortem loading patterns of the raceways are shown in Figure 10.18.

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FIGURE 10.15 Fractured steel cages in deep-groove ball bearings: (a) ribbon-type cage and (b) machined and riveted cage.

FIGURE 10.16 Fractured machined brass in a double-row cylindrical roller bearing.

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FIGURE 10.17 Postmortem loading patterns of a deep-groove ball bearing inner and outer raceways indicating heavy radial preloading that occurred in the bearing.

10.6 INCIPIENT FAILURE DUE TO PITTING OR INDENTATION OF THE ROLLING CONTACT SURFACES 10.6.1 CORROSION PITTING
Operation of a properly operating rolling bearing entails only a small amount of friction torque. As implied in Section 10.2.2, application design must be such as to accommodate the dissipation of both the heat generated by the application and the friction heat generated by the bearings without significant temperature rise. It was shown in Chapter 2 that, in most rolling elementraceway contacts, a combination of rolling and sliding motions occurs. It was further shown that sliding motion is the major cause of rolling bearing friction. Interruption of the rolling contact surfaces by corrosion pits or indentations exacerbates this condition. Figure 10.19 and Figure 10.20 illustrate corrosion pitting and oxidation (rusting) of rolling contact surfaces. Figure 10.21 demonstrates the corrosion of a tapered roller bearing cone raceway due to moisture in the lubricant. Each of these conditions represents an interruption in the smooth surface of the rolling contact surfaces.

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FIGURE 10.18 Postmortem loading patterns of a deep-groove ball bearing inner and outer raceways indicating significant misalignment that occurred in the bearing: (a) outer ring axis misaligned relative to the shaft axis. (continued)

10.6.2 TRUE BRINNELLING

Brinnelling in a rolling bearing is defined as the plastic deformation caused by either sudden impact loading during bearing operation or heavy loading while the bearing is not rotating. Figure 10.22 demonstrates such indentations, typically located at rolling element circumferential spacing.

10.6.3 FALSE BRINNELLING IN BEARING RACEWAYS

False brinnelling as illustrated in Figure 10.23 is actually fretting wear that occurs in the bearing raceways. It is caused by vibration that occurs during transportation of the bearing before installation or of the assembled application. It is also caused in the application by a vibrating load that results in small amplitude oscillations. The lubricant is driven from the contacts and fretting wear results. As seen in Figure 10.23, the indentations are wider than those caused by true brinnelling. Figure 10.24 and Figure 10.25 also depict false brinnelling on bearing raceways.

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FIGURE 10.18 (continued) (b) Inner ring axis misaligned relative to the outer ring axis.

10.6.4 PITTING DUE

TO

ELECTRIC CURRENT PASSING

THROUGH THE

BEARING

In applications involving electric motors, if the bearing is not electrically insulated from the application, electric current may pass through the bearing. This current passage will form clusters of tiny pits in the rolling surface. Continued operation leads to corrugation of the surfaces called fluting, as shown in Figure 10.26 and Figure 10.27; the spacing of the corrugations is a function of the bearing internal speeds and the frequency of the electrical current. Rolling elements may also experience electrical pitting as shown in Figure 10.28. Figure 10.29 shows the special morphology surrounding a pit caused by electrical arcing through a bearing.

10.6.5 INDENTATIONS CAUSED

BY

HARD PARTICLE CONTAMINANTS

Disruptions or dents in the rolling contact surfaces can also be caused by hard particle contaminants that gain ingress past seals or shields into the lubricant and into the free space within the bearing boundaries. Such particles become trapped between the rolling

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FIGURE 10.19 Spherical roller bearingcorrosion pitting of a roller.

elements and raceways and get rolled over. This results in relatively deep impressions in the rolling surfaces as illustrated in Figure 10.30 through Figure 10.32.

10.6.6 EFFECT OF PITTING AND ENDURANCE

AND

DENTING

ON

BEARING FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE

As indicated in Chapter 8, when a ball or roller bearing operates with lubricant films that have thicknesses at least four times the composite rms roughness of the opposing rolling contact surfaces, extremely long life generally results. Raceways in medium-size, modern, deep-groove ball bearings are typically manufactured with raceways having surface roughness Ra 0.05 mm (2 min.) or less; the equivalent rms roughness value is 0.0625 mm (2.5 min.).

FIGURE 10.20 Spherical roller bearingoxidation (rusting) of the inner raceways.

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FIGURE 10.21 Tapered roller bearingcorrosion on cone raceway caused by moisture in the lubricant.

FIGURE 10.22 Tapered roller bearingbrinnelling on cup raceway. (Courtesy of the Timken Company.)

FIGURE 10.23 Tapered roller bearingfalse brinnelling on cup raceway. (Courtesy of the Timken Company.)

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FIGURE 10.24 Deep-groove ball bearingfalse brinnelling on inner raceway.

Therefore, the ideal lubricant film thickness would be approximately 0.25 mm (10 min.). (Ra for balls is only a small fraction of that for the raceways and does not significantly affect the calculation.) Larger bearings and roller bearings generally have rougher finishes; for example, Ra 0.25 mm (10 min.) can be representative of roller bearing raceways and rollers.

FIGURE 10.25 Tapered roller bearingfalse brinnelling on cone raceway. (Courtesy of the Timken Company.)

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FIGURE 10.26 Tapered roller bearingcone raceway fluting caused by electrical arcing. (Courtesy of the Timken Company.)

FIGURE 10.27 Cylindrical roller bearinginner raceway fluting caused by electrical arcing.

FIGURE 10.28 Tapered roller bearingpitting of tapered rollers caused by electrical arcing. (Courtesy of the Timken Company.)

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FIGURE 10.29 Morphology of a pit caused by electrical arcing.

This would give a composite rms roughness of 0.442 mm (17.68 min.). In this case, an ideal lubricant film thickness would be approximately 1.77 mm (70.7 min.). To determine the effectiveness of the lubricant film in separating the rolling contact surfaces in the presence of a pit or dent, the depth of the dent or depression needs to be considered. Figure 10.33 is an elevation view of a section taken through a dent on a raceway surface. The depth of such a dent is typically in the order of several micrometers. This means that the lubricant film will tend to collapse into the depression. Figure 10.34 is a photograph taken through a transparent disk on a balldisk friction testing rig (see Chapter 11). It depicts

FIGURE 10.30 Severe denting of the inner raceway of a deep-groove ball bearing.

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FIGURE 10.31 Denting of one inner raceway in a double-row spherical roller bearing.

FIGURE 10.32 Denting of rolling elements: (a) ball, (b) spherical roller, and (c) tapered roller.

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FIGURE 10.33 Elevation view of dented section of a bearing raceway.

FIGURE 10.34 Passage of a dent on the ball through the balldisk contact of a balldisk testing machine: (a) the dent is entering the contact, (b) the dent is in the center of the contact, and (c) the dent is preparing to exit the contact. (Courtesy of Wedeven Associates, Inc.)

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the passage of a dent through the oil-lubricated balldisk contact. It shows how the lubricant film thickness and pressure distribution over the contact are altered by the dent. Extremely high-pressure ridges form in the vicinity of the depression. In a bearing, these high pressures greatly affect the surface and subsurface stresses in both the rolling element and raceway material, providing initiation points for fatigue failures. Figure 10.35a shows a dent in a raceway. The depression in the material is surrounded by a ridge that acts as a stress riser. Figure 10.35b shows a fatigue spall starting at the ridge on the trailing edge of a dent. Hence, corrosion and oxidation pits, true and false brinnelling, and hard particle contamination dents act as locations for incipient fatigue. This can cause bearing endurance to be shorter than that designed and may also lead to rapid failure of the bearing.

10.7 WEAR 10.7.1 DEFINITION OF WEAR

According to Tallian [1]:
Wear (of a contact component) is defined as the removal of component surface material in the form of loose particles by the application of high tractive forces in asperity dimensions during service.

FIGURE 10.35 Dents in a raceway: (a) depression surrounded by ridge and (b) fatigue spall formed on the trailing edge of the dent.

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The result of wear is continuing loss of the geometric accuracy of the rolling contact surfaces, and gradual deterioration of bearing function; for example, increased deflection, increased friction and temperature, increased vibration, and so forth. In ball and roller bearings, wear is considered preventable by proper attention to bearing and application design, manufacturing accuracy, lubrication adequacy, and prevention of ingress of contaminants. Therefore, no effort is made to estimate the life of rolling bearings as occasioned by wear. According to some bearing practitioners, the term wear is used loosely to include all modes of surface material removal, including pitting and spalling. Herein, the latter modes of material loss are not included in the definition of wear of rolling bearing material.

10.7.2 TYPES OF WEAR

Mild wear is frequently called simply wear. Distinction is often made between two types of mild wear as follows: 1. Adhesive or two-body wear occurring at the interface of the contacting surfaces. 2. Abrasive or three-body wear occurring due to extraneous hard particles acting at the interface of the contacting surfaces. Tallian [1] indicates that the worn surface to the naked eye appears featureless, matte, and nondirectional and characteristic finishing marks of the original manufactured surface are worn away. He further states that the characteristic appearances of other defined modes of material removal such as fretting, micropitting, and galling are distinctly not present. In any case, mild wear by itself, is not a mode of bearing failure, nor does it lead significantly to rapid bearing failure. Severe wear or galling is defined as the transfer of component surface material in visible patches from a location on one surface to a location on the contacting surface, and possibly back onto the original surface. This transfer of material takes place because of high-friction shear forces due to sliding over the asperities of the surfaces. In rolling bearings, this severe wear phenomenon is also called smearing. It is a welding phenomenon entailing adhesive bonding between material portions of the contacting surfaces. Figure 10.36 through Figure 10.38 show bearing components with smearing on rolling contact surfaces. Smearing indicates

FIGURE 10.36 Cylindrical roller bearing inner raceway with smearing damage.

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FIGURE 10.37 Asymmetrical roller with smearing damage from spherical roller thrust bearing.

increased bearing friction and can lead to less-than-expected bearing endurance. Figure 10.39 shows an enlargement of a smeared area.

10.8 MICROPITTING
Tallian [1] narrowly defines surface distress as the plastic flow of surface material due to the application of high normal forces in asperity dimensions. This surface distress results in micropitting, illustrated in Figure 10.40. The implication in this definition is that surface distress and micropitting occur during simple rolling motion; that is, in the absence of sliding. In any case, micropitting appears to be a severe form of surface distress.

10.9 SURFACE-INITIATED FATIGUE

When the repeatedly cycled stress on a surface in rolling contact with another exceeds the endurance strength of the material, fatigue cracking of the surface will occur. The crack will propagate until a large pit or spall occurs in the surface as shown in Figure 10.41. Some salient characteristics of such a spall are:

FIGURE 10.38 Smearing damage on the cone raceway of a tapered roller bearing.

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FIGURE 10.39 Enlarged photograph of smearing on a bearing raceway. Movement of metal is apparent.
. . .

It is relatively shallow in depth. It commences at the trailing edge of the contact. The starting point of the arrowhead is frequently distinguishable if the fatigue spall is detected before significant propagation.

FIGURE 10.40 Extreme surface distress (micropitting) on a ball bearing inner raceway.

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FIGURE 10.41 Surface-initiated fatigue spall in a bearing raceway.

Figure 10.42 and Figure 10.43 show bearings in advanced stages of surface-initiated fatigue. In a properly designed, manufactured, application-selected, mounted, and lubricated rolling bearing, the potential for the occurrence of surface-initiated fatigue is virtually nil. Therefore, notwithstanding Tallians definition of surface distress, a condition of sliding in marginally lubricated rolling elementraceway contacts is usually present when surfaceinitiated fatigue occurs. Furthermore, the surface friction shear stresses during sliding are

FIGURE 10.42 Thrust ball bearing raceway and balls with advanced stage of surface-initiated fatigue.

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FIGURE 10.43 Cylindrical roller bearing inner raceway with advanced stage of surface-initiated fatigue.

most likely increased by the presence of depressions in the contacting surfaces caused by the aforementioned conditions of:
. . . . .

Corrosion or electric arc pitting True brinnelling False brinnelling Denting due to hard particle contaminants Micropitting

Another mode of rolling contact surface failure is caused by hydrogen ions, which attack the surface material, resulting in pitting or spalling of the surface. Figure 10.44 depicts the spalled surface of a bearing ball caused by hydrogen embrittlement. This failure mode, which is relatively rare, is generally associated with rolling contact surface operation at steady-state temperature above that at which degradation of the mineral oil lubricant commences. It is generally associated with significant differential or gross sliding between rolling contact surfaces subjected to high Hertz stress, the surfaces incompletely or marginally separated by a mineral oil lubricant film. The high temperature that results in the contact causes the chemical breakdown of the lubricant, releasing hydrogen ions. Hydrogen embrittlement is also associated with an environment surrounding the bearing, which does not allow the hydrogen ions to easily dissipate from the vicinity of the bearing; for example, in a well-sealed application. The essentially circular shapes of the spalled areas of Figure 10.44 are probably associated with the axisymmetric residual stress distribution existing in the bearing ball after heat treatment and surface finishing. As illustrated in Figure 10.45, the hydrogen ions penetrate the steel from the surface of the component, resulting in cracks. These in turn propagate weakening the material until spalling occurs. Many researchers have investigated the occur-

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FIGURE 10.44 Spalling of bearing ball surface due to hydrogen embrittlement.

rence of hydrogen embrittlement failure. In all these reported experiments, hydrogen was introduced into the application in the presence of excessive contact stresses, and in most cases, in the presence of elevated temperatures. In none of these cases did the production of hydrogen ions result from lubricant chemical breakdown.

FIGURE 10.45 Cracking of steel ball surface due to penetration of hydrogen ions.

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10.10 SUBSURFACE-INITIATED FATIGUE

As stated at the beginning of this chapter, each of the indicated modes of rolling bearing damage and failure is considered avoidable. Under very heavy loading, however, even though an accurately manufactured and properly mounted bearing is well-lubricated, it is possible for bearing failure to occur due to subsurface-initiated fatigue. The life of a rolling bearing from start of operation to occurrence of the first subsurface-initiated spall is the basis specified in the ISO [2] standard and supporting national standards for the calculation of fatigue endurance. See Chapter 11 of the first volume of this handbook. Figure 10.46 illustrates a ball bearing raceway with a subsurface-initiated spall. It is apparent that the depth is not shallow. Figure 10.47 shows spalling that has propagated in a spherical roller bearing raceway, while Figure 10.48 indicates spalling in a tapered roller bearing raceway due to edge loading. Fatigue spalling is not considered a catastrophic-type failure. Depending on the type and quantity of lubrication, the bearing will continue to rotate, however, with ever-increasing friction (see Refs. [3,4]). After some time, depending on the magnitude of loading, operational speed, and lubrication effectiveness, the bearing will experience either excessive vibration or surface friction heat generation causing the bearing to seize.

10.11 CLOSURE
This chapter detailed the various common modes of failure to which ball and roller bearings may succumb. It is seen that most of these involve situations caused by bearing operations outside of recommended practice. As stated previously herein and in the first volume of this handbook, rolling bearings are rated according to their ability to resist or avoid subsurfaceinitiated rolling contact fatigue. The data of Figure 10.49, based on returns of failed bearings to manufacturers, show that the latter comprises only a small fraction of common failure

FIGURE 10.46 Subsurface-initiated fatigue spall in a ball bearing raceway.

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FIGURE 10.47 Subsurface-initiated fatigue spall and propagation in a spherical roller bearing raceway.

FIGURE 10.48 Subsurface-initiated fatigue spalls due to edge loading in a tapered roller bearing cone raceway.

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Subsurface fatigue 8% Deficient sealing 18%

Miscellaneous 2%

Inadequate lubrication 43% Improper mounting 29%

FIGURE 10.49 Frequency of occurrence of bearing failure modes.

types. Therefore, with regard to a given bearing application, attention to proper bearing selection, proper lubricant selection and adequate means of delivery, proper mounting techniques, avoidance of contamination, and general adherence to good operating practice will enable the achievement of the bearing design life.

REFERENCES
1. Tallian, T., Failure Atlas for Hertz Contact Machine Elements, 2nd Ed., ASME Press, 1999. 2. International Organization for Standards, International Standard ISO 281, Rolling Bearings Dynamic Load Ratings and Rating Life, 2006. 3. Kotzalas, M. and Harris, T., Fatigue failure progression in ball bearings, ASME Trans., J. Tribol., 123(2), 283242, April 2001. 4. Kotzalas, M. and Harris, T., Fatigue failure and ball bearing friction, Tribol. Trans., 43(1), 137143, 2000.

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