Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design

10th Edition in SI units

Richard G. Budynas and J. Keith Nisbett

Chapter 11
Rolling-Contact Bearings

Prepared by
Dr. Saleh S. Al-Hayek
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of Tabuk
11 Rolling-Contact Bearings

Chapter
Outline
11-1 Bearing Types

11-2 Bearing Life

11-3 Bearing Load Life at Rated Reliability

11-4 Bearing Survival: Reliability versus Life

11-5 Relating Load, Life, and Reliability

11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust Loading

11-7 Variable Loading

11-8 Selection of Ball and Cylindrical Roller Bearings

11-9 Selection of Tapered Roller Bearings

11-10 Design Assessment for Selected Rolling-Contact Bearings

11-11 Lubrication

11-12 Mounting and Enclosure

Bearing Types
• The terms rolling-contact bearing, antifriction
bearing, and rolling bearing are all used to describe
that class of bearing in which the main load is
transferred through elements in rolling contact
rather than in sliding contact.
• Bearings are manufactured to take pure radial loads,
pure thrust loads, or a combination of the two kinds
of loads.
• Four essential parts of a bearing include: (1) the outer ring, (2) the inner
ring, (3) the balls or rolling elements, (4) and the separator.
• All these bearings may be obtained with shields on one or both sides.
The shields are not a complete closure but do offer a measure of
protection against dirt.
• The spherical-roller thrust is useful where heavy loads and misalignment
occur. Needle bearings are very useful where radial space is limited.
Tapered roller bearings combine the advantages of ball and straight
roller bearings.
4
Bearing Life
• When the ball or roller of rolling-contact bearings rolls, contact
stresses occur on the inner ring, the rolling element, and on the
outer ring.
• Common life measures are :
✓ Number of revolutions until the first tangible evidence of fatigue
✓ Number of hours until the first tangible evidence of fatigue
• Under ideal conditions, the fatigue failure consists of spalling of the
load-carrying surfaces. The American Bearing Manufacturers
Association (ABMA) standard states that the failure criterion is the
first evidence of fatigue. The fatigue criterion used by the Timken
Company laboratories is the spalling or pitting of an area of 0.01 in2.
• The rating life of a group of nominally identical ball or roller bearings
is defined as: the number of revolutions (or hours at a constant
speed) that 90 percent of a group of bearings will achieve or exceed
before the failure criterion develops, also termed as minimum life,
L10 life, and B10 life.
• The most commonly used rating life is 106 revolutions.

7
Bearing Load Life at Rated Reliability
• The load-life function at 0.90 reliability using a regression equation is

Where
a = 3 for ball bearings
a = 10/3 for roller bearings (C10,cylindrical and tapered roller)
• A catalog load rating is defined as: the radial load that causes 10 percent of
a group of bearing to fail at the bearing manufacturer’s rating life.
• In selecting a bearing for a given application, it is necessary to relate the
desired load and life requirements to the published catalog load rating
corresponding to the catalog rating life.

• The expression for a catalog load rating as a function of the desire load,
desired life, and catalog rating life is then:
Eqn. 11-3
9
Bearing Survival : Reliability Versus Life
• If the life measure is expressed in dimensionless form as x = L / L10,
then the reliability can be expressed as:

Where:

R = reliability
x = life measure dimensionless variate, L/L10
x0 = guaranteed, or “minimum,’’ value of the variate
θ = characteristic parameter corresponding to the 63.2121 percentile
value of the variate
b = shape parameter that controls the skewness

• An explicit expression for the cumulative distribution function is

based on Weibull:

11
Relating Load, Life, and Reliability
• The desired load is not the manufacturer’s test load or catalog entry. The
desired speed is different from the vendor’s test speed, and the reliability
expectation is typically much higher than the 0.90 accompanying the
catalog entry.
• For example, the catalog information is plotted as point A, and the design
point is at D, the designer must move from point D to point A via point B.
• Along a constant reliability contour:

• Along a constant load line (AB ):

• Substitution and including an application factor af with the

design load,
Eqn. 11-7

• Shafts generally have two different bearings. If the bearing reliability of the
shaft with its pair of bearings is to be R, then R is related to the individual
bearing reliabilities RA and RB by
15
Quick conversion chart of lbf to kN

1 lbf to kN = 0.00445 kN
Combined Radial and Thrust Loading
• A ball bearing is capable of resisting axial thrust Fa and radial loads, Fr .
Define Fe to be the equivalent radial load that does the same
damage as the combined radial and thrust loads together. Where V = 1
when the inner ring rotates and V = 1.2 when the outer ring rotates.

• The equations for the two lines on Fe /V Fr and Fa /V

Fr coordinates are

• It is common to express Eqs. (11–8a) and (11–8b) as

a single equation,

where i = 1 when Fa /V Fr ≤ e and i = 2 when Fa /V Fr >

e. The X and Y factors depend upon the geometry
and construction of the specific bearing and C0 is the
bearing static load catalog rating.
17
Combined Radial and Thrust Loading(Cont.)

18
Linear Interpolation Formula & Example:

X = 1.17608
Combined Radial and Thrust Loading(Cont.)
• The rotation factor V of 1.2 for outer-ring rotation is simply an
acknowledgment that the fatigue life is reduced under these conditions.
Self-aligning bearings are an exception: they have V = 1 for rotation of
either ring.
• AMBA identifies bearings by a two-digit number called the dimension-
series code. The first number in the code is from the width series. The
second number is from the diameter series.
• To assist the designer in the selection of bearings, most of the
manufacturers’ handbooks contain data on bearing life for many classes of
machinery.

20
Selection of Ball and cylindrical Roller Bearings
Selection of Tapered Roller Bearings
• A tapered roller bearing can carry both radial and thrust
(axial) loads, or any combination of the two.
• A radial load on a tapered roller bearing will induce a
thrust reaction. Timken provides the equation:

where the K factor is geometry-specific and is the ratio of

the radial load rating to the thrust load rating.
• First, determine visually which bearing is being
“squeezed” by the external thrust load, and label it as
bearing A . Label the other bearing as bearing B .
• Secondly, determine which bearing actually carries the
net axial load. For the other bearing is at its original
radial load.

• Once the equivalent radial loads are determined, they

should be used to find the catalog load as before.
28
Example of Tapered Roller Bearing Selection
Design Assessment for Selected
Rolling – Contact Bearings
• An outline of a design assessment for a rolling contact bearing
includes, at a minimum:
✓ Bearing reliability for the load imposed and life expected
✓ Shouldering on shaft and housing satisfactory
✓ Journal finish, diameter and tolerance compatible
✓ Housing finish, diameter and tolerance compatible
✓ Lubricant type according to manufacturer’s recommendations; lubricant
paths and volume supplied to keep operating temperature satisfactory
✓ Preloads, if required, are supplied
• Bearing Reliability : The reliability RD in terms of C10, the basic load
rating of the selected bearing is :

• Matters of Fit : It is important to maintain concentricity and

perpendicularity with the shaft centerline, and to that end the
shoulder diameter should equal or exceed dS . Neither the shaft
shoulder nor the housing shoulder features should allow
interference with the free movement of lubricant through the bearing
annulus.
40
Lubrication
• Elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHD) is: the phenomenon that
occurs when a lubricant is introduced between surfaces that are in
pure rolling contact.
• The purposes of an antifriction-bearing lubricant may be
summarized as follows:
✓ To provide a film of lubricant between the sliding and rolling surfaces
✓ To help distribute and dissipate heat
✓ To prevent corrosion of the bearing surfaces
✓ To protect the parts from the entrance of foreign matter
• Either oil or grease may be employed as a lubricant.

46
Mounting and Enclosure
• The most frequently encountered mounting problem is that which
requires one bearing at each end of a shaft.
• A very common solution is that the inner rings are backed up against
the shaft shoulders and are held in position by round nuts threaded
onto the shaft. Alternatively, the inner races are backed up against
the shaft shoulders as before but no retaining devices are required.
• It is frequently necessary to use two or more bearings at one end of
a shaft to obtain additional rigidity or increased load capacity or to
cantilever a shaft.

47
Mounting and Enclosure (Cont.)
• Preloading : To remove the internal clearance usually found in bearings, to
increase the fatigue life, and to decrease the shaft slope at the bearing.
Preloading of straight roller bearings may be obtained by:
✓ Mounting the bearing on a tapered shaft or sleeve to expand the inner ring
✓ Using an interference fit for the outer ring
✓ Purchasing a bearing with the outer ring preshrunk over the rollers
• Alignment : In general, cylindrical and tapered roller bearings require
alignments that are closer than deep-groove ball bearings. Spherical ball
bearings and self-aligning bearings are the most forgiving. Additional
protection against misalignment is obtained by providing the full shoulders
recommended by the manufacturer.
• Enclosure : To exclude dirt and foreign matter and to retain the lubricant, the
bearing mountings must include a seal.
✓ Felt seals : used with grease lubrication when the speeds are low.
✓ Commercial seal : an assembly consisting of the rubbing element and, generally,
a spring backing, which are retained in a sheet-metal jacket, not be used for high
speeds.
✓ Labyrinth seal : especially effective for high-speed installations and may be
used with either oil or grease.
48
ME 317: Mechanical Design - 2
Mechanical Engineering Department

Ch. # 11 – Problem Solving

Rolling – Contact Bearings
Dr. Saleh S. Al-Hayek
Timkens
SKF