CONTACT STRESS AND RADIAL STIFFNESS OF A CYLINDRICAL ROLLER BEARING WITH CORRECTED ROLLER GENERATOR

Abstract

A method has been developed to study the radial stiffness of a cylindrical roller bearing with corrected roller generator. First, the finite-length contact question of roller-race contact was solved by cutting contact surface into slices and considering the influences among slices by a flexibility coefficient matrix, which was more accurate than the traditional method. Further, the more precise load-approach function of the contact of race and roller with corrected generator was determined. Then, the radial stiffness of a cylindrical roller bearing has been derived by coupling this load-approach function into a complete bearing mechanical model. Results show that the corrected roller generator has a great influence on the bearing radial stiffness. The maximum stiffness difference among the cases of straight and crowned generators is 28.7%. The bearing radial stiffness decreases rapidly with the rise of profile maximum deviation hmax. It is worthy noting that there is a sudden change of stiffness with the adding of load when the bearing is with clearance.