BEARING BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD BASED ON GEOMETRICALLY SIMILAR ROLLER CONDITIONS

Abstract

To solve the three-dimensional pressure and load distribution of roller bearings, a new boundary element method (BEM) is presented in this report. First, a discrete model of the initial location roller was established, and the other rollers' discrete data could be obtained using geometrically similar conditions of this model. Based on the three-dimensional elastic contact BEM, all of the bearing rollers could be described as one object; therefore, the roller bearing problem of a multi-object contact system could be simplified as the problem of a three-object contact system. Bearing boundary elements were used to realize the discontinuous traction on the contact area, and the Hertz contact theory was used to revise the contact widths between the rollers and the bearing races, including the inner and outer races. A coupling matrix equation was established, and the boundary matrix equation's condensation process was illustrated. A bearing-BEM program was compiled based on geometrically similar roller conditions, in which a four-row tapered roller bearing in a rolling mill was simulated. The bearing contact pressure and load, roller contact widths and number of contact rollers were obtained. Lastly, the simulation result was compared with that of the traditional bearing-BEM (T-BBEM) and the experimental data, which proved the validity and effectiveness of the developed method.