An Analytical Dynamic Model of a Hollow Cylindrical Roller Bearing

Abstract

Hollow cylindrical roller bearings (HCRBs) have obtained much attention from design engineers in bearing industries since they can perform better than solid cylindrical roller bearings (SCRBs) in centrifugal forces, contact stiffness, cooling ability, fatigue life, etc. In this study, an analytical dynamic model of a lubricated HCRB is presented to analyze the influences of the radial load, the shaft speed, and the hollowness percentage of the roller on the bearing vibrations, which cannot be formulated by the methods in the reported literature. Both the support stiffness of the shaft and the roller mass are formulated in the presented dynamic model. The hollow hole in the roller is modeled as a uniform one. Numerical results show that the hollowness percentage of the roller has a great influence on the vibrations of the roller and the inner race of the HCRB. Moreover, the vibrations of the components of the HCRB are not only determined by the hollowness percentage of the roller, but also depended on the external radial load and shaft speed. Therefore, during the design process for the hollowness percentage of the roller, the influences of the radial load and the shaft speed on the vibrations of the bearing components should be considered, except for the fatigue life. The results show that this work can give a new dynamic method for analyzing the vibrations of the HCRBs. Moreover, it can give some guidance for the design method for the HCRBs.