The influence of heterogenous porosity on silicon nitride/steel wear in lubricated rolling contact

Heterogeneous porosity is detected on the surface and subsurface of hot isostatically pressed (HIPed) silicon nitride spherical rolling elements. The extent of the localised porosity accounts for an area of 6% of the rolling element surface and 4% of the material volume. An experimental investigation using a rotary tribometer is described to compare the lubricated rolling wear mechanisms and performance of HIPed silicon nitride with heterogeneous porosity defect in contact with steel. A brief review of previous investigations is presented. Localised porosity detection using white and violet light microscopy with post-test evaluation is described. Discussions, micro-hardness measurements and scanning electron microscopy illustrations are presented. Critical localised porosity size is evaluated from experimental results

The effects of lapping load in finishing advanced ceramic balls on a novel eccentric lapping machine

HIPed (Hot Isostatically Pressed) silicon nitride ball blanks were lapped from diameter 13.255 mm to diameter 12.7 mm by a novel eccentric lapping machine. A maximum material removal rate of 68 μm/hour has been achieved under a nominal lapping load of 43 N/ball. It was found that the material removal rate was increasing almost linearly with the lapping load within this load range. When the lapping load was higher than 43 N/ball, the material removal rate started to drop and the lapped ball roundness error started to increase. At the highest nominal lapping load of 107 N/ball, surface and subsurface damages were found on the lapped balls. Because of eccentric loading effect, the actual load on individual ball could be 25~28% higher than the nominal lapping load. The surface residual stresses of lapped balls under different lapping loads were measured, and it was found that the lapping load had less effect than previous HIP process. Rolling contact fatigue tests were conducted on balls lapped at nominal loads of 43N/ball and 107 N/ball. No failure occurred on the ball lapped at 43 N/ball after 138 million stress cycles. Ball lapped at 107 N/ball was failed after 13.3 million stress cycles with a shallow spall with flat bottom inside. This research suggests that the lapping load for advanced ceramic balls in conventional concentric lapping could be doubled from 20N/ball to 40 N/ball without degrading the surface quality of lapped balls

Comparison of 4-ball and 5-ball rolling contact fatigue tests on lubricated Si3N4/steel contact

Accelerated four-ball and five-ball rolling tests were performed on HIPed Si3N4 ball samples (rough lapped with surface roughness value Ra0.08 μm and Rq0.118 μm) in fully lubricated condition. The contact load and the stress cycles per minute for four-ball rolling and five-ball rolling tests were maintained the same. The rolling track appearances of five-ball tests reveal severe sliding occurred. In one case, the opposite arc cracks were generated all over the two sides of the rolling track, and this could not be explained by simplified kinematics model. The failure mechanisms were discussed, which suggest the sliding on the two sides of the track was in the opposite direction

Parity Effect in a mesoscopic superconducting ring

We study a mesoscopic superconducting ring threaded by a magnetic flux when the single particle level spacing is not negligible. It is shown that, for a superconducting ring with even parity, the behavior of persistent current is equivalent to what is expected in a bulk superconducting ring. On the other hand, we find that a ring with odd parity shows anomalous behavior such as fluxoid quantization at half-integral multiples of the flux quantum and paramagnetic response at low temperature. We also discuss how the parity effect in the persistent current disappears as the temperature is raised or as the size of the ring increases.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Europhys. Let

Phase Diagram of Adsorbate-Induced Row-Type-Alignments

The phase diagram of adsorbate-induced row-type-alignments, such as missing-row reconstructions induced by adsorbate-atoms on the FCC(110) surface, is calculated by the Blume-Emmery-Griffiths (BEG) model. In the model, we introduce adatom-adatom and dipole-dipole interactions between nearest-neighbor (NN) and next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) rows. The calculation of the temperature versus adatom chemical potential phase diagram is performed using mean-field approximation. It is indicated that when NN and NNN interactions are competitive, there appear either dipole or coverage modulated (incommensurate) phases at high temperatures for wide regime of the interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, ICSOS'99. to appear in Surf. Rev. and Let

Global weak solutions for Kolmogorov-Vicsek type equations with orientational interactions

We study the global existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to kinetic Kolmogorov-Vicsek models that can be considered a non-local non-linear Fokker-Planck type equation describing the dynamics of individuals with orientational interactions. This model is derived from the discrete Couzin-Vicsek algorithm as mean-field limit \cite{B-C-C,D-M}, which governs the interactions of stochastic agents moving with a velocity of constant magnitude, i.e. the the corresponding velocity space for these type of Kolmogorov-Vicsek models are the unit sphere. Our analysis for $L^p$ estimates and compactness properties take advantage of the orientational interaction property meaning that the velocity space is a compact manifold

The effects of material combination and surface roughness in lubricated silicon nitride/steel rolling contact fatigue

Four kinds of commercially finished 12.7 min HIPed silicon nitride bearing balls with surface roughness values R-a ranging from 0.002 to 0.016 mum were tested using a four-ball rolling configuration. They were rolling against two types of steel testing balls with different surface roughness and hardness, in fully lubricated condition at a maximum compressive stress of 6.58 GPa and at a speed of 10 000 rpm for over 135 million stress cycles. Rolling track surfaces were examined by microscope, SEM, 3-D surface analysis and interference profilometry. Experiment results show that the composite surface roughness are most influential. The shape of the surface topography of silicon nitride are not very sensitive. The slight difference. in steel hardness may lead to significant differences in steel fatigue life

Residual stress field of HIPed silicon nitride rolling elements

The residual stress field of HIPed Si3N4 rolling elements were studied. Two kinds of HIPed Si3N4 ball blanks self-finished at different nominal lapping loads ranging from 1.3 to 10.87 kgf/ball and four kinds of commercially finished 1/2 in (12.7 mm) HIPed Si3N4 balls before, during and after RCF tests were investigated. The experimental results showed that in the finishing process of HIPed Si3N4 rolling elements. the surface and subsurface compressive residual stress induced is proportional to the lapping load applied. There was initially a high compressive residual stress layer on the HIPed Si3N4 ball blanks and this layer is mostly removed during the finishing process. During the rolling contact fatigue process of HIPed Si3N4 rolling elements, the residual stresses on the rolling track will change dramatically as RCF proceeds