Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure analysis of an aero-engine inter-shaft bearing due to

clearance between the outer ring and its housing
Zhefu Yang a, Jie Hong a, b, Dong Wang c, Yanhong Ma b, *, Ronghui Cheng c
a
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 102206, PR China
b
Research Institute of Aero-Engine, Beihang University, Beijing 102206, PR China
c
Shenyang Engine Design and Research Institute, Aero Engine Corporation of China, Shenyang 110015, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The inter-shaft bearing is a critical but vulnerable component of dual rotors, because of the severe
Failure analysis operational conditions and loads. This paper investigates the failure mechanism of a fractured
Inter-shaft bearing inter-shaft bearing belonging to a high thrust-weight ratio turbofan engine. Fractographic and
Bearing clearance
microscopic analyses of the fracture surfaces were conducted, followed by vibration signal pro­
Turbofan engine
Dual rotor
cessing. Finite element analyses of the outer ring were also performed considering the centrifugal,
thermal, and roller-raceway loads. What’s more, using the linear elastic fracture mechanics
theory, the crack growth path simulation was obtained, whose result showed good agreement
with the real fracture morphologies. The results indicated that due to the clearance between the
outer ring and its housing during the operation, the anti-rotation tabs of the outer ring were
subjected to non-uniform load, thus several tabs might suffer large stress concentrations at the
root fillets, which could lead to the crack initiation. During the following operation of the aero-
engine, the crack propagated through the outer ring and cause the fatigue fracture of tabs. The
investigation provided herein suggests that the outer ring and its housing should be redesigned to
eliminate the clearance during the operation, an outer ring formed integrally with the bearing
housing flange is one of the failure preventions of this failure mode.

Introduction

Two-spool engine configurations are widely used in the design of modern aero-engines. The inter-shaft bearing is a differential
bearing which directly connects the high-pressure (HP) rotor and the low-pressure (LP) rotor. The application of inter-shaft bearings is
an efficient and widely adopted way to eliminate static structures, which offers savings in length and weight to increase the thrust-
weight ratio of aero-engines [1]. Different from the ordinary bearing, of which only the inner ring rotates with the shaft, both the
inner and outer ring of the inter-shaft bearing rotate with the HP and LP rotor respectively. The operational conditions and loads of the
inter-shaft bearing are more complex than the ordinary bearing, thus making the inter-shaft bearing a vulnerable component in
modern aero-engines [2].
Plenty of research has been conducted on failure modes, feature extraction, and fault detection of bearings. The commonly-seen
failures of bearings mainly consist of plastic deformation, wear, corrosion, crack, and fracture [3–5]. The reasons for these failures
include extreme operating conditions, inadequate lubrication, improper mounting, and deficient sealing [4]. Oh, and Azarian [6]

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2023.107298
Received 24 March 2023; Received in revised form 18 April 2023; Accepted 26 April 2023
Available online 2 May 2023
1350-6307/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

studied the failure mechanisms of ball bearings in low-power motors for electronics cooling, indicating that lubricant loss, transfer film
formation, and wear particle generation account for the failures. Takabi et al. [7] investigated two types of thermal failure of rolling
element bearings both experimentally and analytically, results showed that the unstable motion of the cage can lead to an ultimate
bearing seizure, and the rapid rise of the thermally-induced preload inside the bearing might cause the thermal seizure and severe
surface damage subsequently. Zhang et al. [8] found that external loads, rotating speed, and preload greatly affect the fatigue life of
angular contact ball bearings, and a proper preload improves the load distribution and extends the fatigue life of ball bearings. Chang
et al. [9] analyzed a batch of roller bearings under oil-air lubrication statistically, and it was found that the main failure modes include
abrasion, burn-up, corrosion, fatigue, and indentation, in which the domination of abrasion failure mode might be due to the existence
of haze particles in the lubrication air. El Laithy et al. [10] reviewed the research on rolling contact fatigue in bearings and the
associated microstructural alterations. Darmo et al. [11] investigated the fatigue fracture on a double-row tapered roller bearing, a
detailed metallurgical analysis revealed that the thermal softening was the leading reason for the initial crack. Zhang et al. [12]
investigated the fatigue failure of the main bearing threaded hole in a high-strength diesel engine, the failure mechanism was the high
cycle fatigue failure caused by the gas-dominated stress amplitude exceeding the bearing capacity of the material and structure. Xu
et al. [13] studied the dynamic behaviors and contact characteristics of ball bearings under the effects of 3D clearance fit. The results
indicate that the larger fit clearance of the unilateral bearing may lead to misalignment of the bearing. Wang et al. [14] investigated the
vibration characteristics of rotor-bearing system with angular misalignment and cage fracture numerically and experimentally.
In order to detect the failure symptoms in time, research on fault detection and diagnosis of bearings has been conducted. The
vibration signal analysis is the most commonly used method to identify bearing faults [15–20]. The characteristic frequencies of
bearings are useful indicators for well-studied faults, such as defects on the inner race, outer race, and roller elements [15,16]. Based on
these research results, a large number of fault detection and diagnosis methods have been established, including the signal analysis
method [17,18] and fault characteristics mining methods [19,20].
In the case of inter-shaft bearings, the existing research mainly focuses on the nonlinear dynamic response of dual rotors with the
inter-shaft bearing [21–27]. For instance, the nonlinearity originated from the defects on the outer or inner race [21–23], Hertz contact
stiffness [24], thermal behaviors of the inter-shaft bearing[25], inter-shaft squeeze film damper [26], bolted joints [27] and bearing
clearance [28–35]. However, the failure modes and mechanism of the inter-shaft bearing were seldom reported.
This paper reports and analyzes the failure mechanism of an aero-engine inter-shaft bearing due to clearance between the outer ring
and housing. Firstly, the overview of this failure is introduced, including the test run processes, vibration signal processing, and
fractographic analysis of the fracture surfaces. Secondly, the deformation, stress, and crack growth path of the inter-shaft bearing are
simulated numerically, which matches the failure phenomena. Based on the above analysis, the failure mechanism of the inter-shaft
bearing is revealed, and a design development of the inter-shaft bearing is proposed in the conclusion, to prevent new failures.

1. Failure description

The dual rotor system with an inter-shaft bearing researched in this paper is used in a high thrust-weight ratio turbofan engine. The

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the inter-shaft bearing and housing; (a) schematic cross-sectional diagram of the dual rotor system with an inter-shaft
bearing; (b) the enlarged view of the inter-shaft bearing; (c)the anti-rotation tabs of the outer ring.

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Z. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

schematic diagram of this dual rotor and the inter-shaft bearing are plotted in Fig. 1. As shown in this figure, the bearing housing for
the inter-shaft bearing is mounted on the LP rotor through bolts, the outer ring of the inter-shaft bearing is mounted in the bearing
housing with a loose interference, while the inner ring is fixed on the HP turbine rotor shaft with heavy interference. The anti-rotation
tabs on the outer ring mate with the grooves of the bearing housing, the function of these tabs is to ensure the synchronous rotation of
the outer ring and the bearing housing.

Overview of the failure

During the test run process of the aero-engine, after a long time of operation at the maximum speed condition, the rotational speed
of the HP rotor dropped suddenly and unexpectedly, and could not recover to the original value, as shown in Fig. 2. However, during
the sudden drop of the HP rotor speed, the power lever angle remained unchanged, and the LP rotor speed recovered to the original
value in a very short time. The operators decided to shut down the engine gradually. After the relative rotational speed was decreased
to 88%, the engine experienced a steady operation for 5 mins with parameters in the normal range. When the relative rotational speed
was decreased to 85%, the amplitude of the vibration signal measured on the casings increased rapidly, and abnormal smog was
exhausted out of the engine, then the engine was shut down emergently.
The regulating law of the two-spool engine is a closed-loop control of the LP rotor speed, which means the control system would
keep the LP rotor speed unchanged when the power lever angle is unchanged. Under this regulating law, the HP rotor speed is
determined by the aerodynamic relation between the two rotors, and influenced by the mechanical efficiency of bearings. The sudden
drop and unrecovery of the HP rotor speed indicate that the rotating resistance of the HP rotor might increase suddenly.
During the teardown inspection of this engine, the inter-shaft bearing was found damaged severely, and a large number of frag­
ments and debris were found in the bearing chamber. As shown in Fig. 3, the outer ring of the inter-shaft bearing cracked completely in
the transverse direction, and three slanted cracks grew completely near the anti-rotation tabs, which made three anti-rotation tabs
missing. The three tabs are numbered 1# to 3#.

Fractographic analysis and microscopic investigation

The fractographic and microscopic analyses were conducted on the fracture surfaces of the outer ring, as well as the wear condition
of balls and the raceway, to investigate the root cause of this failure, as shown in Fig. 4 ~ Fig. 6.
The inspection results of the transverse fracture surface near the 2# anti-rotation tab are shown in Fig. 4. The transverse crack
initiated at the left root fillet of the 2# tab, and radial lines in the transversal direction were found near the crack initiation zone. This is
a characteristic of ductile fracture surface due to high-level stresses. No obvious fatigue striation was seen on the fracture surface.
Besides, dimples were found in the microscopic view of the fracture surface, which could be another evidence of the ductile overload
fracture under high loads.
The fractographic analysis results of the slanted fracture surfaces near the three anti-rotation tabs are shown in Fig. 5. The crack
near the 1# tab initiated at the left root fillet, the crack near the 2# and 3# tabs initiated at the right root fillet, and all propagated in

Fig. 2. The test run history of the aero-engine; (a) the rotational speed of the HP rotor; (b) the vibration signal measured on the casings.

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Fig. 3. The fracture failure of the outer ring in the inter-shaft bearing; (a) the appearance of the fractured outer ring; (b) the schematic diagram of
the fracture location.

Fig. 4. Fractographic and microscopic analysis of the transverse fracture surface near the 2# tab; (a) the fracture position in the outer ring; (b) the
original structure; (c) the overview of the fracture surface; (d) the enlarged view of the fracture surface; (e) the microscopic view.

the slanted direction, forming the arc-shaped cracks eventually. The fracture morphologies of the three tabs had similar characteristics,
which were radial lines in the macroscopic observation and dimples in the microscopic view. Therefore, these results indicate that the
three slanted cracks might have the same generation mechanism.
The damage pattern of rollers showed high similarity, which was wear on a single side, five rollers were severely worn, see Fig. 6.
Considering the sliding wear on the raceway of the outer ring, it could be inferred that severe relative sliding occurred between the
rollers and the raceway of the outer ring during the operation.

Processing of vibration signal measured on the casings

The measured vibration signals were analyzed in detail, during which several feature frequencies were found in the vibration signal
measured on the turbine rear frame. The inter-shaft bearing is supported on the LP rotor which is mounted on the turbine rear frame,
therefore, the feature frequencies caused by faults of the inter-shaft bearing were most likely to appear in the signals measured on this
frame. The vibration signal analysis results are plotted in Fig. 7.
After the rotational speed dropped, there was a set of feature frequencies 2fo ± f1 at about 8 kHz appearing in the acceleration
signal. fo is the ball pass frequency of the outer race (BPFO, which is about 4.3 kHz), the expression is as follows,
( )
N B
fo = |f1 − f2 | 1 − (1)
2 P

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Fig. 5. The fractographic and microscopic analysis of the slanted fracture surfaces; (a) the fracture surfaces in the outer ring; (b) the original
structure; (c)-(e) the enlarged views of the fracture surfaces; (f)-(h) the microscopic views.

Fig. 6. The severe wear of rollers and the raceway of the outer ring; (a) the unilateral wear of the rollers; (b) the severe wear of the raceway of the
outer ring.

Fig. 7. The vibration signals measured on the turbine rear frame; (a) the spectrum cascade of the acceleration signal after the rotational speed
dropped; (b) the spectrum plot of the moment shown in the white circle of (a); (c) the enlarged spectrum plot of (b).

where f1 , f2 are the rotational frequencies of the LP and HP rotor, N is the number of the rollers, B is the diameter of the rollers, and P is
the pitch circle diameter of the rollers. The feature frequencies 2fo ± f1 usually indicate there existed damage on the raceway of the
outer ring [13]. The 2 × BPFO was modulated by the LP rotor frequency f1 , and the reason for the double sideband was the periodic
change of the relative distance between the damages on the outer ring and the signal sensor, since the outer ring was fixed to the LP

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rotor [13].

Numerical simulation

In order to reveal the failure mechanism of the outer ring, numerical simulations are performed by the commercial FE software
ANSYS, including the deformation of the bearing component, stress analysis and crack growth path of the outer ring. The simulation
results showed good agreement with the fractographic analysis.

Deformation of the outer ring and bearing housing

Firstly, the deformation distribution of the outer ring and the housing are simulated, considering the thermal load and centrifugal
load under the operational condition. The centrifugal load under the maximum rotational speed of 13,000 r/min and the temperature
distribution of the outer ring are shown in Fig. 8, the temperature distribution is influenced by the frictional heat generated between
rollers and the outer ring. It’s worth mentioning that the lubricating oils flow above the anti-rotation tabs, therefore, there exists a large
temperature gradient in the vicinity of tabs, which leads to the thermal stress of the tabs. The result of deformation distribution is
plotted in Fig. 9 (a). During the thermal expansion process, the radial deformation of the housing would exceed that of the outer ring,
since the materials of the bearing housing (GH4169) and the outer ring (M50) are different, the thermal expansion coefficient of the
housing is higher than that of the outer ring. What’s more, different from original bearings whose outer ring and housing don’t rotate,
under the centrifugal load caused by the rotations, the deformation of the bearing housing is bigger than that of the outer ring whose
radial height is lower. Therefore, under normal operational loads, there exists obvious deformation incongruity between the outer ring
and its housing, which impairs the radial positioning of the outer ring.
In the operational conditions, the insufficient radial positioning would lead to the non-uniform load distribution on the anti-
rotation tabs, which could be proved by the scratch distribution of tabs in the previous tear-down inspection before this failure. As
shown in Fig. 9 (b), severe scratches occurred to three tabs on one side, while slight scratches occurred on the other side. Under the
non-uniform load distribution, some tabs would undertake a much higher load than the design value, which might cause potential
strength problems.

Stress of the outer ring under operational conditions

This section introduces the stress simulation result of the outer ring under operational conditions, in which the centrifugal load,
thermal load, and roller-raceway load are considered. The centrifugal and thermal loads used in this section are the same with that in
section 3.1. The roller-raceway loads are composed of radial forces and frictional forces, as plotted in Fig. 10, only a portion of the
rollers contact the inner and outer ring when the external loads are applied on the inter-shaft bearing. Since the rollers, inner and outer
rings rotate at different frequencies and directions, the roller-raceway loads belong to the traveling load, whose application location
changes at the relative frequency between rollers and the outer ring. The whirling frequency of the rollers (and their cage) can be
expressed as follows:
( ) ( )
f1 B f2 B
fC = 1+ + 1− (2)
2 P 2 P
Thus, the relative frequency between rollers and the outer ring fC− O is given as
( )
f2 − f1 B
fC− O = fC − f1 = 1− (3)
2 P
Under the traveling loads, the stress of anti-rotation tabs becomes alternating, which might lead to the fatigue fracture of the tabs.
In this paper, two kinds of roller-raceway load are considered, which are the normal operational load and the extreme load. Ac­
cording to the design files of the inter-shaft bearing, the maximum allowable radial load is 5000 N. For the extreme load condition
which occurred during the failure process, the radial load is assumed as twice that in the normal load condition. The coulomb friction
model is adopted here, shown in Eq.(4), as for the friction coefficient between the rollers and raceways, it generally depends on the
surface roughness [36], lubricant type, temperature [37], relative sliding speed [38], etc., there exists a large difference between the
two load conditions. A relatively predictable friction coefficient for bearings in normal applications is about 0.001–0.003 [39], while

Fig. 8. Loads of the outer ring under operational conditions; (a) the centrifugal load; (b) the temperature distribution.

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Fig. 9. The radial deformation distribution of the outer ring and the bearing housing under the operational condition.

Fig. 10. The schematic diagram of motions and loads of the inter-shaft bearing; (a) the rotational motions of components; (b) the roller-raceway
loads applied on the outer ring.

the friction coefficient in the severe wear condition shown in Fig. 6 could rise to 0.2–0.4, typical for dry sliding. So, the friction co­
efficients in the numerical simulation are taken as 0.002 and 0.3 for the two load conditions, as listed in Table 1.
Ft = μFr (4)
The stress simulation of the inter-shaft bearing outer ring is conducted by using the commercial FEM software ANSYS. The cen­
trifugal load, thermal load, and roller-raceway load considered in the simulation are mentioned above. The displacement boundary
condition is plotted in Fig. 10 (c). The scratch distribution of tabs in the tear-down inspection indicates that the clearance between the
outer ring and housing would lead to non-uniform load distribution on the anti-rotation tabs, only a small number of tabs contact the
bearing housing, as shown in Fig. 9. Thus, the three tabs to which severe scratches occurred are selected as the constraint boundaries
during the stress simulation.
The stress distribution of the outer ring under the centrifugal, thermal, and roller-raceway load is plotted in Fig. 11. Under normal
operational loads, the stress critical point of the outer ring is in the root fillet of tabs, and the equivalent stress of the critical point
remains in a safe range, however, the equivalent stress increases to 1177 MPa under the extreme load conditions. It’s noted that under
the extreme load, the root fillets are mainly subjected to the shear stress caused by the roller-raceway frictional load, thus, the
alternating frequency of the stress equals the relative frequency between rollers and the outer ring fC− O , as shown in Fig. 11 (c). The
large alternating stress of the root fillet might be the key reason for the fatigue fracture of the anti-rotation tabs.

Crack growth path simulation

The crack growth path simulation is conducted using the linear elastic fracture mechanics theory. The relationship between the
local stresses at the crack tip and the stress intensity factor (SIF) is defined as:
K
σ = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ f (θ) (5)
2πr

Table 1
The geometric and load parameters of the inter-shaft bearing.
Parameter Value Parameter Value

HP rotor speed f2 /Hz 214 Diameter of rollers B/mm 12

LP rotor speed f1 /Hz 160 Pitch circle diameter of the rollers P/mm 169
Radial load in the normal operational condition/N 5000 Friction coefficient in the normal operational condition 0.002
Radial load in the extreme load condition /N 10,000 Friction coefficient in the extreme load condition 0.3

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Z. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

Fig. 11. The stress of the outer ring under the severe wear condition; (a) equivalent stress contour plot near the anti-rotation tab under the normal
operational load; (b) equivalent stress contour plot under the extreme load condition; (c) time sequence plot for the equivalent stress of the crit­
ical point.

where K is the stress intensity factor, f(θ) is a function that depends on the load and geometry of the studied case. The kink angles
(crack propagation angles) of the original crack front are computed based on the Maximum Energy Release Rate criterion [40,41], in
which the crack will propagate in the direction that maximizes the energy release rate. In this study, the Paris formula is used to
simulate crack propagation. The simulation of crack growth path is performed with the combination of 3D crack propagation simu­
lation software FRANC 3D and commercial FEM software ANSYS. The FE model of the outer ring is created in ANSYS, and the loads and
boundary conditions are the same as those in Section 3.2, in order to compare the simulation results with the real fracture mor­
phologies of the failed outer ring. Then, the FE model is imported into FRANC 3D to perform a quasi-static crack growth simulation.
A circular crack (whose radius is 1 mm) is inserted on the root fillet of the anti-rotation tab, as shown in Fig. 12. The insertion angle
of the initial crack is 45◦ , as shown in Fig. 15, the influence of the insertion angle will be discussed later. The simulation results of crack
growth paths under the normal and extreme loads are plotted in Fig. 13 and Fig. 14. As we can see, under the normal operational load,
the initial crack will propagate in the transverse direction, which resembles the transverse crack in the failed 1# tab, while under the
extreme load condition, the same initial crack will propagate in the slanted direction, and eventually exhibit an arc-shaped crack,
which also resembles the slanted cracks in the failed 1#, 2#, and 3# tabs. The simulation results of crack growth paths show good
agreement with the real cracks on the failed outer ring, which provide support to reveal the failure mechanism of the outer ring.
What’s more, the reason for the difference in crack growth paths is studied. Under the normal operational load, the roller-raceway
loads are small because of the small radial load and friction coefficient, therefore, the stress caused by the thermal and centrifugal load
prevails over that by the roller-raceway load, so the outer ring is mainly subjected to the circumferential stress, which is the main
reason for the transverse crack. Under the extreme load condition, the roller-raceway loads increase rapidly due to the severe wear on
the outer ring, so the tabs of the outer ring are mainly subjected to the shear stress in the slanted direction, thus the cracks would
propagate in the slanted direction, and eventually form the arc shape.
The growth paths of initial cracks with different insertion angles (45◦ and 90◦ ) are studied numerically, as shown in Fig. 15. It’s
worth mentioning that the insertion angle of the initial crack does not influence the overall direction of the growth path. Only within a
small region near the initial crack would the growth paths be affected by the insertion angle, which are plotted in Fig. 15 (d), (f).
Therefore, the whole shapes of the crack growth paths mainly depend on the stress distribution under different load conditions, the
influence of the initial crack angle might be neglected.

3. Summary of the failure timeline

The failure timeline of the outer ring is summarized based on the above fractographic analysis, vibration signal processing, and
numerical simulation results. The timeline of the failure is described in Fig. 16, which could be divided into three stages:

1) During the operation of the aero-engine, there exists obvious deformation incongruity between the outer ring and its housing (see
Fig. 9), which would cause the non-uniform load distribution on the anti-rotation tabs. In the maximum operational condition,

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Fig. 12. The preset initial crack in the corner of the anti-rotation tab.

Fig. 13. The growth path of the initial crack under the normal operational load; (a)-(d) the crack in different growth progress; (e) the real crack in
the outer ring.

several anti-rotation tabs could be subjected to high impact load, which might be the reason for the initiation of the transverse crack
(see Fig. 4).
2) With the accumulation of damages by the high impact load, the transverse crack would propagate gradually. At the moment that
the rotational speed dropped suddenly, the transverse crack might fracture instantaneously through a large portion of the outer ring
(see Fig. 13). Thus, the rolling resistance of the bearing would increase, which could result in the non-recovery of rotational speed
when the power lever angle remained unchanged. On the other hand, the propagation of the transverse crack was so complete that
the feature frequency of defects on the outer ring became apparent in the vibration signal (see Fig. 7).
3) During the shutdown process of the engine, the outer ring was attached to the bearing housing under the centrifugal load, although
the transverse crack fractured completely. Therefore, the inter-shaft bearing still had some operational capability, as shown in
Fig. 17 (a), this might be the reason for the steady operation for another 5 mins after the sudden drop of the rotational speed.
However, since the transverse crack fractured completely, the movement of the outer ring within the bearing housing would
become complicated, and severe wear occurred in the raceway of the outer ring, the anti-rotation tabs might be subjected to
alternating shear loads, which could lead to the fracture of the three failed tabs (see Fig. 17).

After three anti-rotation tabs were fractured, the inter-shaft bearing lost the operational capability rapidly, thus a large number of

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Z. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

Fig. 14. The growth path of the initial crack under the extreme load; (a)-(d) the crack in different growth progress; (e) the real crack in the
outer ring.

Fig. 15. The influence of the initial crack angle on the growth path; (a), (b) two sets of initial angles: 45◦ and 90◦ ; (c), (d) the growth paths of cracks
whose insertion angles are 45◦ and 90◦ under the normal operational load; (e), (f) the crack growth paths of cracks whose insertion angles are 45◦
and 90◦ under the extreme load condition.

debris was generated, which could break the mass balance of rotors, and cause the increase of vibration response.
Based on the failure mechanism revealed above, several preventative methods are provided to avoid new failures. The key to the
failure preventions is eliminating the clearance between the outer ring and its housing during the operational conditions. One of these
methods is increasing the interference fit value between the outer ring and the housing during the assembly process, in order to

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Z. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

Fig. 16. The timeline of the outer ring failure.

Fig. 17. The failure process of the three anti-rotation tabs; (a) relative movement of the inter-shaft bearing after the complete fracture of the
transverse crack; (b) the propagation of the three slanted cracks.

guarantee sufficient interference between the two parts in all the operational conditions. Another preventive action is manufacturing
the outer ring integrally with the bearing housing flange, which is widely-used in the design of aero-engine inter-shaft bearings. This
method makes the outer ring and the bearing housing become an integral part, the roller-raceway loads would be uniformly transferred
to the mounting flange of the bearing, which might avoid failures of this mode fundamentally.

4. Conclusions

This paper investigates the failure mechanism of an inter-shaft bearing outer ring that belongs to a high thrust-weight ratio turbofan
engine, after introducing the overview of this failure, the vibration signal processing, and fractographic analyses of the fracture
surfaces are conducted. Then, the deformation, stress, and crack growth path simulation of the inter-shaft bearing are performed,
which matches the failure phenomena. Based on the above analysis, the main conclusions are drawn as follows:

1) The radial deformation incongruity between the outer ring and the bearing housing during operation might be the root cause of this
failure. The non-uniform load would occur to the anti-rotation tabs, which might suffer large stress concentrations at the root fillets,
and lead to crack initiation.
2) The crack growth paths could be divided into two kinds: the transverse and the slanted ones. The difference in the crack growth
paths depends on the value of roller-raceway loads. The crack would propagate in the transverse direction under normal opera­
tional load, and propagate in the slanted direction under the extreme load. Simulation results of the crack growth paths show good
agreement with the real fracture morphologies.
3) The failure mechanism and the timeline of the inter-shaft bearing are summarized, which match the failure phenomena, vibration
signal, fractographical analyses, and numerical simulations.

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Z. Yang et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 150 (2023) 107298

4) To prevent new failures, the outer ring and its housing should be redesigned to eliminate the clearance between them during the
operation. One of the failure preventions is increasing the interference fit value between the two parts, another preventive action is
manufacturing the outer ring integrally with the bearing housing flange.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability

The authors do not have permission to share data.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Science Center for Gas Turbine Project (P2021-A-I-002-
002) and the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52075018).

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