Radial load distribution by balls in a ball bearing with variable clearance

Abstract

Clearance in ball bearing influences the startup torque and stiffness of bearing and affects the load distribution, load carrying capacity, and life of bearing. The present work is related to deep groove single row ball bearing with their rings groove are in a radial plane and the outer ringway track is made elliptical. During this event clearance along the bearing's circumference, rings are no longer constant and vary along with the major to the minor axis. A detailed mathematical model is developed to analyze the performance characteristics of a deep groove single row 6206 ball bearing with variable clearance. Based on Hertz elastic contact theory and contact mechanics, the radial load distribution by balls is calculated. The obtained results and other excerpts of this proposed work open the ground to study ball bearing behavior with variable clearance and its suitability in the field of bearing. The results are further compared with conventional ball bearings and found that the load shared by most loaded ball with variable clearance reduced significantly under the particular angular movement of the outer elliptical ring. Therefore the radial load carrying capacity of ball bearing can be enhanced with variable clearance.