Silica Induced Tribological Degradation in an Industrial Pelletizer Bearing: A Multiscale Failure AnalysisPages 343-354
Willian Aperador Abstract:
Premature bearing failure is a major cause of unplanned downtime in industrial equipment operating under severe service conditions, where the interaction between wear, lubrication, and contamination accelerates material degradation. This study presents a multiscale failure analysis of an NU240 cylindrical roller bearing from the main shaft of an industrial pelletizer to identify the root cause of failure and reconstruct the degradation mechanism. Visual inspection, fractographic examination, optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were applied to the bearing, lubricant, and solid deposits recovered from the system. The damaged components exhibited abrasive wear, adhesive wear, cavitation, and corrosion products distributed over the raceways and rolling elements. Structural characterization identified magnetite and goethite as the predominant corrosion products, while spectroscopic analysis confirmed silica contamination in the lubricant and solid residues. The results indicate that silica particles promoted lubricant film breakdown, increased friction, and accelerated the generation of metallic wear debris, leading to a transition from abrasion-dominated wear to combined abrasion, adhesion, and tribocorrosion. A failure mechanism is proposed in which external silica contamination acts as the primary trigger of progressive tribological degradation. The proposed methodology provides a reliable approach for diagnosing bearing failures and supporting predictive maintenance strategies in lubricated industrial systems.
Keywords:
Failure analysis,
Rolling bearing,
Silica contamination,
Tribological degradation,
Abrasive wear,
Tribocorrosion,
Predictive maintenance
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