Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Fatigue Life Prediction For Large-Diameter Elastically Constrained Ball Bearings, Jerzy Sawicki, Samuel Johansson, John Rumbarger, Ronald Sharpless

Jerzy T. Sawicki

The application of large-diameter bearing rings and the thereof inherited low stiffness make them susceptible to local distortions caused by their surrounding structures, which are often under heavy loads. The standard accepted design criteria for these bearings are based on the estimation of the internal load distribution of the bearing, under the assumption of rigid circular and flat supporting structures, that keep the bearing inner and outer races in circular, flat, i.e., not deformed shapes. However, in the presence of structural distortions, the element load distribution can be severely altered and cannot be predicted via the standard design criteria. Therefore, …