Characteristics of tapered roller bearings in relation to roller profiles

Abstract

This paper investigated the characteristics of tapered roller bearings (TRBs) including stiffness, displacement and contact pressure distribution in rollers, with consideration of the effects of roller profile and axial preload. To this end, a comprehensive modeling and computation procedure for TRBs was presented. In this paper, TRBs with four typical roller profiles were examined: straight roller, and three modified rollers such as chamfered, fully-crowned, and partially-crowned rollers. Simulation results showed that, under low axial preload, straight rollers provide higher stiffness and lower contact pressure than those of modified rollers owing to the larger contact area between roller and raceways. Under high axial preload, TRBs with modified rollers exhibited an improvement in reduction of peak contact pressure in rollers. Stiffnesses of TRBs were almost independent of roller profile when high preload is applied. Among the investigated roller profiles, the most effective pressure reduction was achieved with the partially-crowned roller.