Friction moment analysis of space gyroscope bearing with ribbon cage under ultra-low oscillatory motion

This paper presents the model of calculating the total friction moment of space gyroscope ball bearings which usually work under ultra-low oscillatory motion and are very sensitive to the friction moment. The aim is to know the proportion of the friction moment caused by each frictional source in the bearing’s total friction moment, which is helpful to optimize the bearing design to deduce the friction moment. In the model, the cage dynamic equations considering six degree-of-freedom and the balls dynamic equations considering two degree-of-freedom were solved. The good trends with different loads between the measured friction moments and computational results prove that the model under constant rate was validated. The computational results show that when the speed was set at 5 r/min, the bearing’s maximum total friction moment when oscillation occurred was obviously larger than that occurred at a constant rate. At the onset of each oscillatory motion, the proportion of the friction moment caused by cage in the bearing’s total friction moment was very high, and it increased with the increasing speed. The analyses of different cage thicknesses and different clearances between cage pocket and ball show that smaller thickness and clearance were preferred.