Abstract
In this paper, the effects of shaft and bearing flexibilities are investigated for the accurate modeling of a shaft-bearing system supported by ball bearings. Generally, rolling bearings are modeled by simple rigid pin-joint in the mechanical design. However, they can no longer be modeled by ideal boundary conditions in the advanced applications because the rigid pin-joint model cannot satisfy the current trends of mechanical design decreasing mass and reducing volume. Consequently the flexible support model of ball bearing is investigated using the static analysis module developed by A .B. Jones and T. A. Harris. A simple two-bearing system, supported by two deep groove ball bearings and radially loaded on the shaft midway between the bearings, is utilized to validate the coupled model of shaft-bearing system. Numerical computations using the model indicate that the shaft span length, locating/floating bearing arrangements and applied bearing size are significant factors in determining the mechanical behaviors. The flexible support model of ball bearing can be escaped to over-estimate in the bearing fatigue life. The proposed simple design formulation obtained by numerical simulations can approximately predict a rate of bearing life reduction as a function of shaft span length/shaft diameter (L/d).
