Axial-radial-roller bearings can be used for turntables. Here not only the bearing life or static capacity is important but also the bearing stiffness to minimize displacements on the turntable. Bearing pretension and geometry of connected parts will have an influence on this stiffness. Often the stiffness is calculated using general FEA programs where the contact between roller and races takes time to be modelled.

MESYS provides a FEA based calculation program which allows the user to model the bearing geometry as axial symmetric parts connected by roller bearings. The parts are defined as a polygon, loading can be defined on surfaces or points. Multiple bearings rows can be added, supported types are: axial roller bearing, radial roller bearing, cross roller bearings and angular roller bearings. Bolted joints can be defined as they affect bearing pretension.

The deformations of the parts are calculated by FEA, the contact between rollers and races is calculated analytically and is based on the contact stiffness in ISO/TS 16281. By using the load distribution on the rollers, the contact stress and bearing life according ISO/TS 16281 are calculated.

The stiffness is determined by selecting two points from the axial section of the geometry and by applying the load in different steps. The difficulty regarding the stiffness is the selection of boundary conditions which have a large impact on the resulting stiffness.

The following results are available:

Force and moment on each bearing row Nominal and modified reference life according to ISO/TS 16281 Max contact stress for each bearing row Diagrams for contact stress on each bearing row in 2D and 3D Deformation as 2D diagram or 3D view Stiffness derived from two selected points and load steps The maximum and minimum load on the bolts

Because of the limitations on modelling the parts the software does not replace conventional FEA calculation for bearings, however it allows to build different models quickly to compare different possible solutions. As the bearing manufacturers mostly do not know the details of the connected parts, these limitations on the geometry can also be acceptable for them.

For additional information, please contact

MESYS AG
Technoparkstrasse 1
CH-8005 Zürich
[email protected]
+41 44 4556800
www.mesys.ch