Projects

Design & Development of Advanced Rolling Contact Fatigue Test Rig to Investigate Failure Modes in Gears and Bearings (Funding Agency: UND)

Rolling-contact fatigue (RCF) is a crucial failure mode observed in drivetrain components such as in gears and bearings. In this project, a group of senior year undergraduate students leveraged their strengths as engineers to design and model a new RCF test rig for the mechanical engineering department at UND. Through the design process, the team performed engineering calculations, material selection, and design review to produce a design to test and observe the effects of rolling-contact fatigue. The main goal of the RCF test rig was to support materials and tribology research by Dr. Roy’s group. In year 1, this was designed and in year 2 it was developed and preliminary experiments were performed. This capability can be applied to automotive, agriculture, and aerospace industries focusing to explore drivetrain failure mechanisms in RCF process.