EngD position in Film Thickness measurement in Large bearings

Large Rolling Element Bearings are in use in many application such as trains, wind turbines, cranes, and other industrial applications. These bearings enable the rotation inside these systems, for example of the train wheels. If these bearings fail, this often means that the whole system cannot function anymore and must be repaired causing high costs and disruptions.

In this project a system will be designed which enables the measurement of the lubrication state inside grease lubricated bearings. The system will make use of electrical methods and can thus be applied to real bearings. With the help of this system it will be possible to improve and fine tune the life time models. Furthermore, they may enable users to actually base their maintenance on the real condition inside the bearing. This will allow the maintenance to be done at an optimal time and thus save material and make the systems more reliable. It also supplies a tool to study the lubrication of large bearings in more detail which can lead to development and optimisation of future systems.

The position will be embedded in the SKF University Technology Centre (UTC) on grease lubrication and is linked to the Surface Technology and Tribology and the Tribology Based Maintenance (TBM) chairs. Our enthusiastic group is highly international and has a long history of research in the area of tribology. Our research combines both experimental research as well as model development in diverse tribology and degradation related topics.

The implemented system relies on the electrical impedance of a lubricated contact. By using the capacitance of the system the film thickness can be determined. The electrical resistance can be used to understand lubricant changes as well as mixed lubrication conditions. An existing model can be used to infer from the measured total impedance to the impedance of all the inhomougenously loaded contacts within the bearing.

The design work in this project entails the technical steps:
Mechanical and electrical implementation
Development of an evaluation methodology
Building and implementing in experimental bearing setup
Validation, Reporting and Handbook writing.