VIBRATIONS GENERATED BY IDEALISED BALL BEARING

Rolling element bearings will generate vibrations during

operation even if they are geometrically and elastically perfect. This is an inherent feature of the
bearing type and is due to the use of a finite number of rolling elements to carry the external
load. A study of a realistic bearing arrangement shows that the number of rolling elements under
load varies with the cage position. This gives rise to a periodical variation of the total stiffness of
the bearing assembly and consequently generates vibrations. The number of rolling bodies under
load also depends on the vertical and horizontal, position of the inner ring relative to the outer
ring, which is assumed to be stationary. The bearing assembly thus constitutes a statically
indeterminate system with time varying and non-linear stiffness coefficients where vertical and
horizontal displacements are strongly coupled. The most convenient way of tackling such a
problem is to assume displacements and subsequently calculate the arising reaction forces.
Force-Deformation relationship will be shown in next sub-section.
In a bearing operating at normal speed, the displacements
generated by the bearing will cause the occurrence of inertia forces proportional to the mass of
the external load. For higher speeds dynamic forces of the same order of magnitude as the dead
weight of the load occur. These dynamic effects have been analysed by including the previously
described stiffness function in the equations of motion of a rotor supported on roller bearings.

Varying Compliance Frequency

The cage ensures the constant angular separation (

) between rolling elements; hence there is

no interaction between rolling elements. Therefore,

2
Nb

(2.1)
There is no slipping of balls as they roll on the surface of races. Since there is perfect rolling of
the balls on the surface of races and the two points of ball touching the races have different linear
velocities, the center of the ball has a resultant translational velocity. The translational velocity of
the center is

Vcage

Vinner Vouter
2

(2.2)

Vouter outer R
Vinnerr inner r

Where

(2.3)

Vouter 0
Here the outer race is assumed to be stationary,
Vcage

. Therefore

Vinner inner r

2
2

(2.4)

( cage )

Now the angular velocity of the cage

about the center of the inner race is

cage

Vcage

R r / 2

inner r
R r

(2.5)

inner rotor
Since inner race is rigidly fixed to the rotor, hence

. Therefore

r R

cage rotor

(2.6)

The varying compliance frequency is given as

vc cage N b

(2.7)

Nb
Where

is the number of balls therefore from equation (2.6) & (2.7)

vc rotor BN

(2.8)
Where

r
Nb
r

BN

The number

BN

(2.9)

depends on the dimensions of the bearing, for SKF6002, BN=3.6.from

equation (2.8) we can say that varying compliance frequency is dependent on the bearing
geometry and rotor speed.

Force-Deformation Relationship for Ball Bearings

Force-deformation relationship is given by Hertzian theory. Consider the roller bearing in

j
Fig.2.2 .The angular position of the cage is defined by

and the gaps between the rollers by

2
Nb

Fig. 2.1 Hertxian contact theory

The bearing has internal radial clearance of

so that when the inner and outer rings are

concentric, there is no contact between the rollers and the outer ring. Now assume that the center
of the inner ring is moved from O to O' shown in Fig. 2.1. This will cause the two circles to
interfere with each other over a part of the circumference. From fig. 2.2, it becomes clear that

this interference will cause an elastic (for small displacement its deformation of the rollers and
rings. Dowson has shown that for rings mounted firmly against solid steel shaft and bearing
house, the only significant deformations are the local deformations at the contact points between
rollers and rings. He also showed that the local stiffness is near linear and can be well
approximated. These deformations will give rise to the reaction force of the bearing. The zone
over which the inner race and outer race circles interfere with ball will therefore be called the
elastic deformation zone.

Fig. 2.2 line diagram of radially loaded bearing (courtesy:NPTEL)

If

y
&

is the displacement of inner race center then ball-race contact deformation in radial

direction at contact is given as,

x cos i y sin i
(2.10)

Where,

is radial play and

i

2
(i 1 ) wcage t
Nb

i 1,....N b

(2.11)

i
We see that

is a function of time and imparts the parametric effect to the system

The ball-race contact deformation of the ball generates a restoring force with non-linear
characteristics because of Hertzian contact.

Fi C b n ,

n 3/ 2
(2.12)

Cb
The values of

and

are arrived by performing the elastic analysis of the Hertzian contact

between the inner and outer race and the ball.

From equations (2.10) and (2.12)
Fi Cb(x cos i y sin i )1.5U
(2.13)

F
Obviously a roller can only support compression forces, so for negative values of ,
should
i

equal zero. Therefore, multiply the right member with

where U is the Heaviside unit step

function having the value one for positive arguments and the value zero for negative arguments.
The total restoring force is the sum of the restoring force from each of the rolling elements. Thus,
the total restoring force components in X and Y directions are
Nb

Fx C b (x cos i y sin i )1.5 cos i U

i 1
Nb

Fy C b (x cos i y sin i )1.5 sin iU

i 1

(2.14)
F y mg

Fx
If the rotor is turned very slowly, no inertia forces occur, which makes
y

x
Inserting these values in equation (2.14) and calculating
the static VC shaft locus.

Rotor supported by ball bearing

= 0 and

and

i
as functions of

, will give

Having derived an expression for the force - deformation relationship for the bearing assembly, it
is now possible to proceed to considering rotor - bearing system. Even at very low speeds
however, the inertia forces have a significant effect. To solve the then occurring dynamic VC
vibration problem, the equations of motion for the mass of the rotor for horizontal and vertical
movements are set up. The damping in this system is represented by an equivalent viscous
damping C. The value of the damping depends on the linearized bearing stiffness as shown in
equation().The system governing equations accounting for inertia, restoring and damping force
and constant vertical force acting on the inner race are
..

..

m x c x Fx W Fu cos(t )
m y c y Fy Fu sin( t )

(2.15)
By rearranging the terms equation of motion is,
..

..

Nb

m x c x Cb (x cos i y sin i )1.5 cos iU W Fu cos (t)

i 1

Nb

m y c y Cb (x cos i y sin i )1.5 sin iU Fu sin (t)

i 1

(2.16)

Here m is the mass of the rotor supported by bearing and mass of inner race. The imbalance

Fu
force

for this case is zero. System consists of two coupled non-linear ordinary second

order differential equations having a parametric effect in them. The stiffness because of its
step change behavior, the parametric effect with 15 non-linearity and the summation term
is non-analytic in nature.

Modified Dynamic model of system

Nb

AS

=9, so during operation number of balls in loading zone will vary from 4 to 5. So to

remove the ambiguity in problem we assume that on average 4.5 balls will be in loading zone. So
the contribution of each ball for the damping will be given as

c'

=200/4.5

Acording to modified damping the equations of motion are,

..

Nb

Nb

m x c' x U C b (x cos i y sin i )1.5 cos i U W Fu cos (t)

i 1

..

Nb

i 1

Nb

m y c' y U C b (x cos i y sin i )1.5 sin i U Fu sin (t)

i 1

i 1

As we have proposed that damping will be present if

(2.17)
U

is equal to one. This new damping

formulation has not been reported in any literature. This formulation is based on the fact that, in
no contact zone of roller-race assembly gap is present. So this gap is not contributing to the
damping of the bearing and hence these regions are neglected in modified modeling.

Computational considerations
The equations of motion, Eq. (2.17) are solved using the modified Runge kutta method to obtain
the radial displacement and velocity of the rolling elements. In order to eliminate the effect of the
free response an artificial damping was introduced into the system. With this damping, transient
vibrations are eliminated and peak steady state amplitudes of vibration can be estimated. The
longer the time it takes to reach steady state vibrations, the longer the CPU time that is needed
and hence the more expensive the computation; we chose a value of c = 200 N s/m. To observe
the nonlinear behavior of the system, parameters of the ball bearing are selected and are shown
in Table 2.

Table 2 Geometrical properties of bearing

Ball diameter (Db)

Inner race diameter(Di=2r)
Outer race diameter(Do=2R)
Pitch diameter(Dp)

4.762 mm
18.738 mm
28.262 mm
23.5 mm

Radial Load(W)

6N

Mass of the rotor(m)

0.6 kg

Damping factor(c)

200 N s/m

Raidial clearance( )

m
20

Results & Discussion

The frequency response of the dynamic model is obtained to study the VC vibrations. The
system is simulated at 2120 r.p.m. and BN=3.6 (for SKF 6002), therefore from equation (2.8)

vc
=126.8 Hz. The frequency spectrum shows the VC frequency and its harmonics as shown in
Fig. 2.3. The frequency spectrum has a band structure as shown in between spikes of VC and its
multiples.

VC=12
6.8

VC=12
6.8

Fig. 2.3 Frequency response at 2120 r.p.m

Speed response plots

Speed response plots are obtained for the combination of the above parameters under study.
These plots are generated by numerical integration to reach steady state when peak-to-peak
values of x and y displacements are obtained. For reaching steady state for the first speed the
initial conditions are taken as the fixed point solutions. For successive speeds, the initial
conditions are taken as the steady state solution obtained for the preceding speed. For a nonlinear system the response plots have regions of multivalued solution which are generally the
high-amplitude regions. Generating the response curve so that the i th steady state speed solution
is near the (i - l)

th

speed solution ensures that the same response curve is plotted. Throughout,

otherwise there is a danger of the solution jumping from one response curve to another.

-5

Peak to peak amplitude in m

2.5

x 10

2
1.5
1
0.5
0

6
Speed in krpm

10

12

14

16

18
Speed in krpm

20

22

24

-5

Peak to peak amplitude in m

2.5

x 10

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
12

Fig.2.4 Response plot ,c=200 Ns/m, - vertical response, + - horizontal response

The overall response plot for the system is shown in Fig. 2.4. The peak-to-peak (pp) vertical
response is higher than the peak-to-peak horizontal response. The overall response plot has a
very rough appearance. Three regions can be identified which have high pp response. Three
regions of stable solutions can be easily identified in fig. 2.4, region I(7000-8250) ,region II
(11000-13400) and region III(22900 onwards).
Response plot for the modified dynamic model based on new damping formulation is
shown in Fig. 2.5. The peak-to-peak (pp) vertical response is almost equal to the peak-to-peak
horizontal response. Three regions of high pp response can be easily identified in the dynamic
model too, infact it is more clear in the modified model. Three regions of stable response is also
observed in response plot but the region is shifted compared to response plot of earlier model as
shown in Fig. 2.4. Region I(7150-8200), region II(11800-16500), region III(22800 onwards)

shows the stable behavior as depicted from response plot. Third region of stability is observed in
both the models.

-5

Peak to peak amplitude in m

x 10

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

6
Speed in krpm

10

12

-5

Peak to peak amplitude in m

x 10

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

12

14

16

18
Speed in krpm

20

22

Fig. 2.5 Response plot ,c=200 Ns/m, - vertical response, + - horizontal response

Route to chaos

24

Ball bearings are a non-negligible source of vibration in many types of rotating machine. Fukata
studied the dynamic behavior of a radially loaded bearing under a varying rotor speed. They
noted that, away from the two critical speeds, the solutions were periodic, showing the ball pass
frequency / 6 and its harmonics. Around the first critical speed, they noticed some subharmonics
of the ball pass frequency whereas, around the second one, the solutions failed to remain periodic
and were described by what they called beat and chaos-like behavior The subharmonic route is
associated with the first critical speed. It generates more and more subharmonics of the ball pass
frequency, and is characteristic of the instability of the bearing. The quasi-periodic route is
associated with the second critical speed. The competition between two basic components results
in an increasing number of combinations and it finally leads to chaos by overlap of resonances.
When defects are introduced in the bearing, a third route to chaos is noticeable and looks like
intermittency. While the vertical stiffness is always greater than zero, this is not true for the
horizontal one. There are some positions for the ball complement that resolve the horizontal
stiffness to zero, and so, periodically, the rotor location is unstable .The two critical speeds of the
bearing assembly are defined by a ball pass frequency.
The horizontal stiffness is subject to large variations as the

vc
cage rotates and therefore, when it is excited by the ball pass frequency,

, cannot take control

of the motion and the bearing is unstable. The well-known cascade of subharmonics is the
characteristic route to the chaos of unstable behaviours; to improve its stability, one system
generates more and more subharmonics of the driving frequency, and this phenomenon leads to
chaos after an infinite number of bifurcations or period doubling. An increasing number of points
in the bifurcation diagram indicates that more bifurcations occur, but these are very close to each
other.
Whatever the route described, the loss of contact is always present when
chaos takes place, and so the occurrence of loss of contact is not a criterion for chaos; it is
necessary but not sufficient.

POINCARE MAPS

Poincare maps are obtained by sampling the four-dimensional flow (x, x', y, y'), once per forcing

T 1 / f vc
period

. Resulting attractors are then projected onto the phase plane (x, x').

The

response of the dynamic models represented by equations (2.16) and (2.17) is compared by using
the poincare maps. As discussed earlier, in modified model the response has been shifted in rpm
band as seen in pp response Fig. 2.5 and same is proved by using Poincare maps, Fig. 2.6.

(a)

(b)
Fig.2.6 (a)-c(modified damping) , (b)- c = 200 Ns/m

In the earlier model the chaos at 6400 is through a route of pitchfork bifurcations.As speed
increase, stability returns by a torus solution which is clear form Poincare map at 6850 r.p.m.
Similar route to stability is observed in the modified too, but as we can observe the modified
model is somewhat more choatic, which is quite related to actual response.

As speed is increased further system response becomes stable as

seen in response plots (2.4) and (2.5). From 6900 to 8250 r.p.m. there is period one stable
response. From 8300 r.p.m.again pitchfork bifurcation takes place and that leads to chaotic
region from 8300 to 10500 r.p.m..The chaotic region extends up to 10500 r.p.m. As seen if Fig
2.8 after 10500 r.p.m. system goes to period one stable response through torus solution.
As we can see, in modified model system stability is reached at the speeds slight
higher than the earlier model. For the modified model the response is shifted in the sense of
r.p.m. In modified model from 7200 to 8400 r.p.m. there is period one stable response.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 2.7 (a) -c(modified damping) , (b) - c = 200 Ns/m

(a)

(b)
a-c(modified damping) , b- c = 200 Ns/m

(a)

(b)
Fig. 2.8 (a)-c(modified damping) , (b)- c = 200 Ns/m

From 8400 r.p.m. same phenomenon is observed as basic model till 11500 r.p.m. The Poincare
maps of both the model are compared as shown in Fig. 2.8. from the above comparison we can
say the modified model gives the good results and is the correct justification for the ball-bearing
dynamic model.