Modeling and simulation on the contact deformation distributionin a wire race ball bearing

Abstract

A mathematical model was firstly built for investigating the contact deformation distribution in a wire race ball bearing. The numerical computing program was developed in MATLAB ® , by employing an example of a wire race ball bearing with a 1000 mm diameter used in a large-scale caterpillar disaster relief robot. The contact deformation distribution in the elliptical contact zone of the wire and the ball was obtained. The finite element simulation was carried out to demonstrate the validity of the mathematical model and numerical method. It shows that the results by the numerical method are in good agreement with those by the simulation. The present work provides a significant support for studying the stiffness of the wire race ball bearing, and for boosting the application in the large scale rescue robot.

Optimization Design of Rectangular Cross-Sectional Wire Race Ball Bearing

“…At present, the domestic and foreign researchers on the contact fatigue and wear experiment of wire race ball bearing showed that friction and wear always happened in the whole process of balls contacting with the raceway; under the action of cyclic alternating contact stresses, the contact fatigue crack generated on the wire raceway, and formed pitting, and aggravated friction and wear between the contact surface; wear could change the geometry of contact surface, then change load transferring and the contact stress, as well as aggravate contact fatigue [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. This paper takes wear as optimal design focus, and limits contact fatigue by controlling contact load in the form of the constraint at the same time, to extend bearing's life.…”