Effects of Load Distribution on Life of Radial Roller Bearings

Abstract

An external load applied to a radial rolling bearing is distributed among the rolling elements. In many applications, the bearing internal load distribution may be altered by the elastic deformations of the bearing rings. This alteration can have an effect on bearing life. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of load distribution on bearing life, both theoretically and experimentally, using several housing models which provide different contact conditions between the housing bore and the outer ring. This paper first presents a newly developed method of determining dynamic load distributions with an optical fiber strain sensor. The measurements of the load distribution for the housing models by using this method have shown that the contact condition between the housing bore and the outer ring affects the load distribution, and the effect of the load distribution on the bearing life has been confirmed by the theoretical calculation of the bearing life. Furthermore, endurance tests using dented bearings were performed to validate the effect of load distribution on bearing life. The results of the tests have substantiated that the bearing life is substantially affected by the load distribution; moreover, it has been shown that there is a linear relationship between the calculated lives and the experimental ones.

Optimization of operating conditions for a double-row tapered roller bearing

“…This can cause significant local deformations (a max ) and defects, such as pitting and fatigue spalling (Harris and Kotzalas 2006). In addition, if the operating conditions that are applied to the TRB differ from the values that the manufacturer provided, the distribution of contact stresses on the outer raceway in some areas of contact can become nil, cause the rollers to detach from the outer raceways (Nagatomo et al 2012). Also, a torque that greatly exceeds that recommended by the manufacturer, combined with a reduced preload, may cause the rotation of one of the raceways and a variation of d that causes the TRB works with difficulty.…”

<b>Recent Trend of Research and Development on Materials for Railway</b>

“…The method validated the impact on serviceable life of different contact conditions between the bearing and the housing bore, both theoretically and experimentally [9].…”

Correction of Radial Load Distribution Integral for Radial Bearings

“…In this transfer process, the rolling elements are not equally loaded. This uneven load distribution is affected by the amplitude of the external load and the geometry of the rolling bearing [1] and plays a significant role on the operating characteristics of a bearing [2], such as the static carrying capacity [3,4], dynamic vibration [5][6][7][8], radial stiffness [5,[9][10][11][12] and fatigue life [1,3,[13][14][15]. To determine the radial load distribution, Stribeck [16] first derived an equation to calculate the maximum load on a rolling element of a ball bearing with zero radial clearance.…”