Fatigue Life Analysis of Rolling Bearings Based on Quasistatic Modeling

Rolling bearings are widely used in aeroengine, machine tool spindles, locomotive wheelset, and so forth. Rolling bearings are usually the weakest components that influence the remaining life of the whole machine. In this paper, a fatigue life prediction method is proposed based on quasistatic modeling of rolling bearings. With consideration of radial centrifugal expansion and thermal deformations on the geometric displacement in the bearings, the Jones' bearing model is updated, which can predict the contact angle, deformation, and load between rolling elements and bearing raceways more accurately. Based on Hertz contact theory and contact mechanics, the contact stress field between rolling elements and raceways is calculated. A coupling model of fatigue life and damage for rolling bearings is given and verified through accelerated life test. Afterwards, the variation of bearing life is investigated under different working conditions, that is, axial load, radial load, and rotational speed. The results suggested that the working condition had a great influence on fatigue life of bearing parts and the order in which the damage appears on bearing parts.