The present paper addresses how the commonly used Hertz formulas for contact stresses underestimate the actual stresses seen in practice due to temperature differentials, misalignments and other contruction-related defects. First, two failure cases of Swedish bridge roller bearings are analyzed and discussed; then, a detailed finite element (FE) model is used to investigate the accuracy of the traditional roller bearing design rules in view of issues such as abutment and girder deformability, misalignment imperfections and material nonlinearity. The bearing capacity of the studied rollers as provided by the manufacturer is used as reference. A rigorous FE model that accurately models girder, roller assembly and abutment provides the necessary information for the assessment of the related contact stresses, which were traditionally calculated by means of the Hertz analytical formulas. Numerical results first establish that roller bearings develop contact stress concentrations at the outer edges of the cylindrical drums. Second, it is established that the contact stresses are very sensitive to misalignment imperfections between the bridge girder and the abutment. Last, it is shown that the roller bearings develop inelastic deformation at relatively low loads in relation to the design load. These reasons, combined with the unlikelihood for roller bearings to shake-down, constitute the basis of the observed roller bearing failures.

In this work, the finite element method is employed to gain an understanding of the behaviour of a cracked bridge roller bearing in service. The cracked roller is considered as an edge-cracked disk (two-dimensional plane strain system) subjected to a radial compressive line load. The crack parameters K_I and K_II are calculated for the relevant load configuration and angle of disk rotation. The calculated data are also used to check the accuracy of approximate SIF solutions reported earlier [1] and [2]. For plain Mode I loading very good agreement is found between the obtained results and data presented in Schindler and Morf (1994). 

The paper is aimed at finding the likely failure mechanism of a bridge roller bearing made of high strength martensitic stainless steel. Spectroscopy and finite element stress analysis of the roller indicated that an initial radial surface crack, found at an end face of the roller and close to the contact region, was induced by stress corrosion cracking (SCC). The initial crack subsequently changed shape and increased in size under growth through fatigue and finally formed a quarter-circle radial crack centred on the end face corner of the roller. Numerically computed stress intensity factors for the final crack showed that crack loading was predominantly in Mode II. For a crack size as observed on the fracture surface, the maximum service load, as specified by the manufacturer, enhanced by a certain roller bearing misalignment effect, was sufficient for failure through fracture.

With the innovation of elastomeric bearings in the mid-1950s steel bearings lost their interest and significance both in research and development and subsequently even in application. Steel bearings were gradually abandoned in bridges, followed by the technical literature and design standards. However, a great number of steel bearings remain today in service world-wide and will pose their particular challenges in the future. To the author’s knowledge, just in Sweden, high strength stainless steel bearings still exist in no less than some 650 bridges. In recent years, a large number of such bearings have failed with an alarmingly high frequency in Sweden during a period of six to twenty years after installation making them a serious maintenance cost issue.

After a brief summary of the history of high strength stainless steel bearings, the paper reviews service experience of such bearings in Sweden and elsewhere. Accompanying finite element analyses were performed in order to gain insight into the likely failure mechanism. Finally, this comprehensive review leads to a conclusion that identifies the causes of the failures occurred and makes some recommendations.

Although previous investigations of the stainless steel bearings have not been able to clearly identify the cause(s) of the failures occurred, it is found that the failures primarily occurred due to initiation of cracks through stress corrosion cracking followed by fatigue crack growth requiring a certain stress range and a sufficiently large number of cycles until final failure ensued through sudden and instable fracture after fatigue growth to a critical crack size.