The 3-D boundary element method of roller bearing by plate element analogue

The mill roller bearing is made up of an internal ring, middle rolls and an external ring, the analysis of which is a multi-bodies contact problem. In this paper, based on the three-dimensional elastic contact BEM without friction, and using the structural characteristics of roller bearings, middle rolls are described by elastic plate units of different shapes, which is placed on the internal ring. The discontinuous traction problem of the contact element can be dealt with by the traction sub-element method. Therefore the contact problem can be changed from one of multi-bodies to one of two-bodies. As an elastic deformation of the plate element, it can be calculated by an elastic contact formula and is regarded as an equivalent gap to be put into the total matrix equality. The face-to-face contact condition of displacement and traction on the element will serve as the convergence judging condition. So convergence solution can be obtained before any geometry inconsistent on the contact element may take place. Therefore, the three-dimensional distribution of load of the mill roller bearing can be achieved. It has been proved that the calculating model of this method is visualized and simple, has fast convergence solution and higher accuracy, making it an effective numerical method of designing and analyzing load characteristics of the mill roller bearing. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50075075).