Study of the Stiffness Matrix of Preloaded Duplex Angular Contact Ball Bearings

Abstract

This paper studies the stiffness characteristics of preloaded duplex angular contact ball bearings. First, a five degrees-of-freedom (5DOF) quasi-static model of the preloaded duplex angular contact ball bearing is established based on the Jones bearing model. Three bearing configurations (face-to-face, back-to-back, and tandem arrangements) and two preload mechanisms (constant pressure preload and fixed position preload) are included in the proposed model. Subsequently, the five-dimensional stiffness matrix of the preloaded duplex angular contact ball bearing is derived analytically. Then, an experimental setup is developed to measure the radial stiffness and the angular stiffness of duplex angular contact ball bearings. The simulated results match well with those from experiments, which prove the validity of the proposed model. Finally, the effects of bearing configuration, preload mechanism, and unloaded contact angle on the angular stiffness and the cross-coupling are studied systematically.