Investigation of skidding in angular contact ball bearings under high speed

• A dynamic model is developed to investigate skidding of angular contact ball bearing.
• The interactions between balls and raceways, cage and lubricant are considered.
• Skidding under combined axial and radial loads is investigated.
• Axial load significantly affects the skidding of bearing and should be carefully determined.

This paper proposes a dynamic model to investigate skidding in angular contact ball-bearings with considering the interaction between balls and raceways, cage and lubricant. The differential equations governing the motions of bearing elements are established and solved using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta algorithm; traction forces between balls and raceways are evaluated based on elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory. The results show that the applied axial load significantly influences the behavior of skidding due to the changes of internal load, orbital and rotation speeds of ball under different operating conditions; appropriate axial load can be determined to avoid severe skidding.