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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">WESD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Wind Energy Science Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">WESD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2366-7621</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/wes-2026-144</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Fleet-scale evidence and a testable coupled mechanism for radial-raceway spalling in an offshore 5 MW three-row roller main bearing</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ma</surname>
<given-names>Xilei</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jiang</surname>
<given-names>Dongxiang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Kai</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>CSSC Science &amp; Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200023, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Energy and Power Engineering,  Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>10</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>28</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Xilei Ma et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-144/">This article is available from https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-144/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-144/wes-2026-144.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-144/wes-2026-144.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Standard rating-life calculations predicted sufficient durability, yet premature radial outer-raceway spalling recurred in a 203-turbine offshore 5/6.2 MW fleet. By 11 August 2026, eight bearings had been removed after 26&amp;ndash;53 months and two additional units were stopped awaiting replacement. All eight dismantled bearings exhibited damage within the stationary 3&amp;ndash;9 o&amp;rsquo;clock lower radial load zone, whereas axial-row damage was limited. Fleet-scale teardown evidence for offshore three-row cylindrical-roller main bearings is rarely reported in the peer-reviewed wind-energy literature. The present dataset therefore provides an unusual opportunity to establish a repeatable circumferential damage pattern and to organize competing mechanisms within an explicit evidence hierarchy. Roller-end breakage, gearbox-side cage contact, a measured full-power inner-to-outer-ring temperature difference of about 12 &amp;deg;C, and partly obstructed grease inlets provide mutually consistent, but individually non-unique, evidence for load redistribution and lubrication-access effects. Grease screening of 198 turbines identified Cu &amp;ge; 5000 ppm in 21 units (10.61 %), Fe &amp;ge; 5000 ppm in 10 units (5.05 %), and the combined condition Cu &amp;gt; 10000 ppm and Fe &amp;gt; 5000 ppm in five units (2.53 %); these thresholds are used only as project-specific risk flags, not as transferable diagnostic cut-offs. A nominal Hertz calculation gives a baseline maximum roller load of about 109 kN and contact pressure of 0.997 GPa. System FEA predicts 0.067&amp;deg; maximum raceway misalignment; across the 100 mm roller length this corresponds to an end-to-end geometric offset of about 0.12 mm, providing an order-of-magnitude structural basis for testing a moderate 20&amp;ndash;50 % edge-pressure amplification range (Kedge = 1.20&amp;ndash;1.50), while not constituting a calibration of Kedge. The combined evidence is most consistent with accelerated rolling contact fatigue in which the fixed load zone controls damage location, while thermo-structural load redistribution, restricted grease replenishment, debris and local case-condition variability can reduce fatigue margin. The principal contribution is therefore fleet-scale field evidence and an evidence-ranked, falsifiable engineering framework for offshore main-bearing failure assessment, rather than identification of a unique root cause or a new life-prediction equation.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="28"/></counts>
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