Measurement of the roller tilt angle in a double-row tapered roller bearing with strain gauges

Abstract

Roller tilting can cause severe roller-edge loadings, leading to serious local heat generation or early failure of the rolling element bearing. Therefore, it is significant to obtain the roller tilt angle in real service for evaluating the bearing performance. A measurement method was proposed to determine the roller tilt angle by detecting the variation of the strain amplitude difference between two axial positions of the bearing outer surface with a notched housing. An experimental system was developed to investigate the roller tilt angles in a double-row tapered roller bearing and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed measurement method by conducting a comparison with the finite element method (FEM) simulation results. The experimental roller tilt angles agree well with the FEM results. Compared with other measurement methods, the proposed method offers a potential approach to achieve the in-situ and non-destructive measurement of the roller tilt angles for long-term monitoring.