4 Replies Latest reply on May 10, 2013 3:05 AM by RICARDO OTERO

    Rolling Bearing Fem Validation

    RICARDO OTERO
    RICARDO OTERO May 9, 2013 4:08 AM

      Hi, We have a SolidWORKS customer is Spain interested on Validate an optimize the desing of roller bearings.

      He is asking us for a benchmark with Solidworks Simulation but i am not sure we can afford this kind of calculations directly.

      They want to check the influence of Geometry, friction, diferent velocities, fatigue,static and dinamyc, diferent loads, etc.

      The main problem from my point of view is managing the contacts.

       

      I would be very happy if some of you has any experience on this area

       

      Thank you.

        • Re: Rolling Bearing Fem Validation
          Peter Biggert
          Peter Biggert May 9, 2013 10:41 AM (in response to RICARDO OTERO)

          It is not easy to model the internal contacts between the races and rollers and cage in a bearing. The contact patches are very small and are a function of the loads. It is hard to know if deflections cause by the loads will cause the contacts to shrink or grow. With general purpose FEA programs like SolidWorks Simulation you have to assume a lot of boundary conditions and have a fine mesh in areas where you think you have contact.

           

          You may need a more specialized FEA program. I do know of a company called Advanced Numerical Solutions (www.ansol.us) that makes software that does this type of analysis. I doubt it comes cheap though.

          • Re: Rolling Bearing Fem Validation
            Jared Conway
            Jared Conway May 9, 2013 8:35 PM (in response to RICARDO OTERO)

            Could it be done? Yes. Would it be a lot of work? Yes. Is it practical to do in SolidWorks Simulation? I think that is hard to answer. I think you have to really narrow down what studies you're going to run and do some tests to determine if it is something you want to take on. If someone brought that to our team here at Hawk Ridge Systems, I would really have to evaluate the scope of the work they want to perform and the level of accuracy. If they need everything you've mentioned, we're talking about nonlinear dynamic and high accuracy which means lots of time and $$$. That being said, if they are looking for some trends to minimize the number of prototypes that need to be built, IE, the real intention of most simulation tools, there should be some concessions and simplifications that can be made to make this project reasonably solvable in SolidWorks Simulation.