Lifetime prediction of bearings in on-board starter generator

Ensuring flight safety for passengers as well as crew is the most important aspect of modern aviation, and in order to achieve this, it is necessary to be able to forecast the durability of individual components. The present contribution illustrates the results of a computational analysis to determine the possibility of analysing the prediction of bearing durability in on-board rotating equipment from the point of view of thermal fatigue. In this study, a method developed at the Air Force Institute of Technology was used for analysis, which allowed to determine the bearing durability from the flight altitude profile. Two aircraft have been chosen for analysis - a military M-28 and a civilian Embraer. As a result of the analysis were obtained: the bearing durability in on-board rotating devices, average operation time between failures, as well as failure rate. In conclusion, the practical applicability of this approach is demonstrated by the fact that even with a limited number of flight parameters, it is possible to estimate bearing durability and increase flight safety by regular inspections.