Analysis and prediction of vibrations of ball bearings contaminated by open pit coal mine debris particles

Abstract

Analysis of the relevant literature has shown that only few researches are dealing with the bearings dynamic behaviour in real environmental conditions - where high concentration of solid contaminant particles is evident. There is still no established mathematical correlation between bearings vibration characteristics, working time and concentration level of contaminant particles in their grease. Solving this problem was the main goal of research described in this paper. First step was thorough analysis of the chemical composition and structure of contamination particles directly causing the sample bearings failure on open pit coal mines. After that, specific experimental methodology was developed and implemented. Finally, by processing of the experimental results, new mathematical correlation between listed bearings characteristics was determined.

Keywords

• bearings
• conveyor idlers
• coal mines
• contamination
• particles
• vibrations