Abstract
The size of a tapered roller bearing is affected by its self heat generation and wear. When a tapered roller bearing is used in position preload, the axial load applied changes as the bearing size changes. Therefore, it is important to understand about the axial load condition while rotating the bearing. However, when a bearing is mounted into a more complicated machine, it becomes harder to measure the axial load. An experimental apparatus is designed to measure the change in axial load while rotating the test bearings. By referring to the experimental apparatus, a model of tapered roller bearing mounted with position preload is also designed using FEM analysis. Both of analytical and experiment results are compared. Based on the results, axial load obtained by FEM analysis is higher compared to the experimental result. The effects of bearing wear and plastic deformation are not counted in FEM analysis. Hence, we can assume that the difference in the axial load result is due to wear and plastic deformation when rotating the bearing. By using the decrease in assembly width and preload loss relationship, the analysis result is compensated. From this, we are able to accommodate the change of axial load applied to a running tapered roller bearing within 5% error.
