An efficient thermal model for high-speed angular contact ball bearings based on oil-air two-phase flow and gray-box model

Abstract

Purpose For a lightweight and accurate description of bearing temperature, this paper aims to present an efficient semi-empirical model with oil–air two-phase flow and gray-box model. Design/methodology/approach First, the role of lubricant/coolant in bearing temperature was discussed separately, and the gray-box models on the heat convection inside a bearing cavity were also created. Next, the bearing node setting scheme was optimized. Consequently, a novel semi-empirical two-phase flow thermal grid for high-speed angular contact ball bearings was planned. With this model, the thermal network for the selected motored spindle was built, and the numerical solutions for bearing temperature rise were obtained and contrasted with the experimental values for validation. The polynomial interpolation on test data, meanwhile, was also performed to help us observe the temperature change trend. Finally, the simulations based on the current models of bearings were implemented, whose corresponding results were also compared with our research work. Findings The validation result indicates that the thermal prediction is more accurate and efficient when the developed semi-empirical oil–air two-phase flow model is employed to assess the thermal change of bearings. Clearly, we provide a more proper model for the thermal assessment of bearing and even spindle heating. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper introduced the oil–air separation and gray-box model for the first time to describe the heat exchange inside bearing cavities and accordingly presents an efficient semi-empirical oil–air two-phase flow model to evaluate the bearing temperature variation by using thermal network method. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-06-2023-0180/