On the Axial Harmonic Vibration Caused by Passing Balls in a Ball Bearing

Abstract

The vibration caused by the passing balls in a ball bearing appears in both the radial and the axial directions. The cause and the phenomena of the axial vibration are more complicated than those of the radial one. In the previous paper the authors dealt with the subharmonic vibration of the order one-half caused by the passing balls as one of the axial vibrations and showed that the axial motion became unstable at a certain range of the rotational speed. In this paper, firstly it is shown that the axial harmonic vibration caused by the passing balls becomes unstable only when the number of balls is small and in the ball bearing having many balls such motion does not appear. Secondly in the case where the outer race is slightly inclined to the shaft it is shown that the axial harmonic vibration caused by the passing balls becomes a forced vibration and shows resonant phenomena.