Influence of hydrogen on premature failure of bearing steel

Research Project, 2015 – 2016

Premature failures of bearings are encountered in several industries, e.g. in wind turbines, and may occur at bearing lives magnitudes of order shorter than predicted. It is strongly hypothesized that hydrogen induces and/or strongly accelerates premature failures. It is crucial for SKF to gain better understanding of the underlying mechanisms in order to mitigate failures through development of e.g. bearing steel, design and application technology. The results are expected to allow significantly improved reliability for the affected systems. Bearings and bearing steel will be subjected to test conditions known and strongly predicted to cause hydrogen- induced failures. State-of-the-art characterization methods will be used to study the influence of hydrogen by metallurgical and fractographical studies.

Participants

Collaborations

Funding

Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure

Chalmers Materials Analysis Laboratory

Infrastructure

Materials Science

Areas of Advance

More information

Latest update