Lubrication and Thermal Failure Mechanism Analysis in High-Speed Angular Contact Ball Bearing

Lubrication analysis of rolling bearing is often conducted with assumed operating conditions, which does not consider the effect of internal dynamics of rolling bearing. In this paper, the effects of the applied load and bearing rotational speed on the lubrication performance in an angular contact ball bearing are conducted, which combines the bearing dynamic analysis and thermo-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) analysis. First, the internal motions and contact forces are obtained from the developed bearing dynamic model, and then were integrated into the TEHL model to investigate the lubrication performance of the bearing. The results show that the rotational speed and external load has significant effects on film thickness, temperature, and power loss; if the improper axial load is applied for certain bearing speed, the lubrication performance will deteriorate and thermal failure may occur; there exists critical load or speed to keep good lubrication performance and avoid thermal failure; the skidding contributes to the thermal failure and bad lubrication performance.