Analyses of contact forces and vibration response for a defective rolling element bearing using an explicit dynamics finite element model

• An explicit dynamics finite element model of a defective bearing is presented.
• The physical mechanism that generates impulses in defective bearings is explained.
• Rollers-to-raceways contact forces are presented as the rollers traverse a defect.
• Re-stressing of rolling elements produces a burst of multiple force impulses.

This paper provides insights into the physical mechanism by which defect-related impulsive forces, and consequently, vibrations are generated in defective rolling element bearings. A dynamic nonlinear finite element model of a rolling element bearing with an outer raceway defect was numerically solved using the explicit dynamics finite element software package, LS-DYNA. A hypothesis was developed to explain the numerical noise observed in the predicted vibrations and contact forces, and the noise frequencies were analytically estimated. In-depth analyses of the numerically estimated dynamic contact forces between the rolling elements and the raceways of a bearing, which are not measured in practice, and have not been reported previously, are presented in this paper. Several events associated with the traverse of the rolling elements through the outer raceway defect are elaborated, and the impulsive force generating mechanism is explained. It was found that the re-stressing of the rolling elements that occurs near the end of a raceway defect generates a burst of multiple short-duration force impulses. The modelling results also highlight that much higher contact forces and accelerations are generated on the exit of the rolling elements out of defect compared to when they strike the defective surface. A bearing with a machined outer raceway defect was tested in a controlled experiment; the measured acceleration response compared favourably with the numerically modelled acceleration results, thereby, validating the low- and high-frequency characteristics of the de-stressing and re-stressing of the rolling elements, respectively.