Influence of the elastic and elastic-plastic material parameters on the mechanical properties of slewing bearings

Abstract

Slewing bearings are critical components of rotating equipment. Large structure sizes and heavy working load conditions require an extremely high load-bearing capacity and reliability. Overall and local contact finite element models of slewing bearings are verified by the empirical formula and Hertz contact theory. Validated finite element models are used to analyse the influence of the elastic material (E 1) and elastoplastic material parameters (EP 1, EP 2 and EP 3) on the load carrying capacity. The following conclusions are obtained by comparing the maximum contact load, the contact stress, the load distribution and the full-circle deformation. The influence of the material parameters on the slewing bearing is investigated to improve the analysis accuracy of the carrying capacity of the slewing bearings.