Research on effect of damping variation on vibration response of defective bearings

Abstract

This article presents a dynamic model of ball bearings with a localised defect on the outer raceway to analyse the effect of damping variation on the vibration response of defective bearings. First, a dynamic model is built based on the Hertzian contact theory, the interaction between the bearing inner ring, outer ring, and rolling element; the effect of damping and stiffness is considered; and the vibration equation of the bearing system is solved by the fourth-order Runge–Kutta algorithm. Then, the damping ratios of the experimental bearings using different types of viscosity lubricating grease are measured and compared with the damping ratios of the dynamic model; in addition, the viscous damping coefficient of the experimental bearings are calculated. Finally, the numerical analysis and experimental results show that the grease with a different level of viscosity affects the vibration signal of the defective bearing.