Integrating the elastic surroundings into multibody simulation of rolling bearings

Abstract

Rolling bearings provide secure guidance and load transmission only with sufficient support from the surrounding components (housing, gear body, shaft). In some cases, such as planetary gear bearings or large-size bearings, the stiffness of the bearing surroundings can affect the internal bearing dynamics. Therefore, this article presents a new, computationally efficient method for integrating elastic surroundings, including the rings, into multibody simulation of rolling bearings. Elastic modeling is based on a component mode synthesis method and the floating frame of reference formulation. For the contact calculation between rolling element and ring, a slice model is extended to deformed ring surfaces. The method is applied to spherical roller bearings. Minor mean errors of <4% in the load distribution verify the implemented contact search and force calculation. Additional evaluations of the rolling element speed confirm the correct kinematics of the rolling elements. A plummer block housing demonstrates that the method can account for inhomogeneous stiffness distributions and is not restricted to simple, symmetrical surroundings. Furthermore, it was found that outer ring deformations can lead to increased bearing vibrations.