Influence of Wear on Surface Crack Growth of PPS Thrust Bearing in Water Lubrication under 2300 N at 1200 rpm

Many factors determine the fatigue life of mechanical components for transmission of rotational motion. In particular, since engineering polymer components exhibit complex tribological behaviours, a variety of studies are needed. For this reason, a large number of studies have been published on polymer components under rolling and sliding contacts. However, researches on the subject have been done for specific conditions. In addition, it is still unclear whether the finding can be applied to bearing based on industrial standards. For ball bearing based on the industrial standards, several studies suggest that the fatigue life of polymer bearings under water was caused by flaking with surface cracks. On the other hand, these studies did not discuss the initiation and propagation of the surface crack under the effect of wear. Therefore, fatigue tests under rolling contact were performed in this study to investigate the surface crack behaviour on the groove surface of PPS thrust bearing based on industrial standards.