CH 11: Rolling-Contact Bearings

Also called “antifriction bearings” or “rolling bearings”.

Ø The starting friction is about twice the running friction.
Different from journal bearings in that the load is transferred by elements in rolling
contact rather than sliding.
With rolling bearings we do not design the bearing but rather we select a bearing
according to our design requirements (the bearings are already designed).

Bearing Types
Bearings are designed to take radial load or thrust load
or combination of both.
• Nomenclature of ball bearings;
§ Four main parts: inner ring, outer ring, balls (or
rollers) & separator (retainer).
Ø How balls are inserted in the grooves?

• Some types of ball bearings: see fig. 11-2.

(a) Deep groove bearing: takes radial and some thrust load.
(b) Filling notch bearing: has more balls i.e. takes more radial load, but less
thrust.
(c) Angular contact bearing: more thrust.
(d, e) Shielded & sealed bearings: protection against dirt.
(f, h) Self-aligning bearings: withstands more misalignment.
(g) Double row bearing: takes twice the load of single row, but less parts and
space than two bearings.
(i, j) Thrust bearings: thrust load only.

• Some types of roller bearings: see fig. 11-3.

(a) Straight roller bearing: takes higher radial load than ball bearing (more
contact area), but needs perfect geometry & does not take thrust load.
(b) Spherical-roller thrust bearing: useful for heavy loads & misalignment
(contact area increases with load).

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 1 of 9
 (c) Thrust: thrust load only.
Ø Why rollers are tapered?
(d) Needle bearing: useful when radial space is limited.
(e, f) Tapered-roller bearings: take both radial & thrust loads (higher loads than
ball bearings).
• Other types:
§ Instrument bearings: high precision, made of stainless steel.
§ Non precision: no separator, made of sheet metal.
§ Ball bushings: permit rotation & sliding.

Bearing Life
When a bearing is in operation, contact stresses occur on the inner ring, rolling
elements and outer ring.
If the bearing is clean, lubricated, sealed against dust and operates at reasonable
temperature, then metal fatigue will be the only cause of failure.
• Bearing life is a measure of the “Number of revolutions of the inner ring (outer ring
is fixed)” or “Number of hours of use (at a standard speed)” until the first evidence
of fatigue.
• According to ABMA, “Rating life” or minimum life or “
 ” life or “ ” life is the
number of revolutions (or hours at fixed speed) that 90% of a group of bearings will
achieve or exceed before failure criterion develops.
Ø Median or average life refers to 50th percentile life of a group of bearings. It can
be up to 4 or 5 times the
 life.

Bearing Load-Life Relation at Rated Reliability

When identical groups of bearings are tested till life-failure
criterion at different loads, the data can be plotted as:

• Thus, we can write: FL1\ a = Const. (1)

where,

a=3 for Ball bearings

Obtained from testing
a = 10 / 3 for Roller bearings

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 2 of 9
 From eqn. (1) we can write:
1/ a 1/ a
F1 L1 = F2 L2
• Manufacturers rate their bearings for a fixed num ber of revolutions at a certain
radial load called the “catalog load rating”  .
Ø For example:
SKF rates for 106 revolutions
Timken rates for 90×106 revolutions
• To choose a bearing from the catalog we can replace  and
 with catalog values
 and
 :
1/ a
C10 L10 = FL1 / a L in revolutions

or
C10 ( LR n R 60)1 / a = FD ( LD n D 60)1 / a

Catalog load rating (KN or lb) Desired speed (rev/min)

Rating life (hours) Desired life (hours)
Rating speed (rev/min) Desired load (KN or lb)

Solving for  gives:

1/ a
 L n 60 
C10 = FD  D D 
 L R n R 60 

See Example 11-1 from text

Relating Load, Life and Reliability

The catalog gives load rating for 0.9 reliability “ ”
Q: what if we desire a higher reliability?
A: Since bearing life is a random variable that follows a Weibull distribution, the
catalog load rating “ ” can be found as:

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 3 of 9
 1/ a
 xD 
C10 = a f FD  1/ b  For  

 x0 + (θ − x0 )(1 − RD ) 
where,

a f : Application factor to compensate for non-steady load.

RD : Desired reliability. Note that if 
 is used
x0 ,θ & b : Weibull parameters. this will give the same result
as the previous equation.
xD : Non-dimensional life measure where:
Also,  can be included in
L 60 LD n D
XD = = the previous equation.
L10 60 LR n R

The typical values of the Weibull distribution parameters for ball bearings are

  
 
 where  and  are in million revolutions.

Q: why would we need a reliability higher than 0.9?

A: take for example a gearbox having six bearings each with 0.9 reliability.

The total reliability will be: (0.9) 6 = 0.53 Only!

See Example 11-3 from text

• The ABMA identifies the boundary dimensions of bearings using a 2-digit number
called the “dimension-series code” where the first digit refers to the width and the
second refers to the height.
Ø See fig. 11-7 (variety of bearings sizes that may have the same bore)

v Table 11-2 lists the dimensions and load ratings C10 and Co for two types of the 02-
series ball bearings (from the SKF catalogue).
Ø The Co is called the “static load rating” which is the maximum radial load a
bearing can withstand while it is not rotating.
§ Co value depends on the number and dimensions of the balls or rollers in the
bearing).

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 4 of 9
 * Why is the Co value smaller than the C10 value?
* What is the importance of the fillet radius and shoulder diameter? (See
fig. 11-8)

v Table 11-3 lists the dimensions and load ratings for some cylindrical-roller bearings
(from the SKF catalogue)
* Why the shoulder diameter is not listed?

v To assist the designer in bearing selection, bearing manufacturers give some

recommendations on bearing life (see Table 11-4) and load application factor (see
Table 11-5).

Combined Radial and Thrust Loading

Ball bearings are capable of resisting both radial and thrust loading.
• Let  &  be the axial (thrust) and radial loads and take “ ” as the “equivalent
radial load” (i.e., it will do the same damage as both).
§ Also, define a “rotation factor”, , such that: Note that if the bearing is
subjected to radial load only, the
 when inner ring rotates rotation factor can be included
directly in the equation used for

 when outer ring rotates why?
calculating  by multiplying the
§ From testing it was found that  can be represented as: design load  with .

Fe = X iVFr + Yi Fa
where,
i = 1 when Fa / VFr ≤ e
i = 2 when Fa / VFr > e
v Table 11-1 gives the values of X 1 , X 2 , Y1 , Y2
§ “ e ” depends on Fa / Co (calculate Fa / Co then take the corresponding e value).
Note that  needs to be known (i.e., a bearing must be selected) to find  .
Thus, an iterative solution is needed when the bearing is loaded by radial and
thrust loads as will be seen later in Example 11-7.

See Example 11-4 from text

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 5 of 9
Variable Loading
Bearing loads are frequently variable, it can be:
§ Piecewise constant loading in cyclic pattern.
§ Continuously variable loading in repeatable pattern.
§ Random.
• Let us consider the piecewise constant pattern, eqn.
(1) can be written as:

F a L = Constant = K
§ If the bearing runs at load level F1 until point A,
then the partial damage can be measured as:

D = F1a l A
§ Consider the piecewise constant loading pattern
shown.

The damage done by loads Fe1 , Fe 2 & Fe3 is,

D = Fea1l1 + Fea2l2 + Fea3l3

where,
Fei : is equivalent radial load for combined
radial-thrust loads.
Li : is the number of revolutions.
§ The equivalent steady load “! ” when run for l1 + l2 + l3 revolutions, will do the
same damage:
D = Feqa (l1 + l2 + l3 )
§ Equating and solving for ! we get,
1/ a
 Fea1l1 + Fea2l2 + Fea3l3 
Feq = 
l1 + l2 + l3
 = [
∑ i ei
f F ]
a 1/ a

 
where f i is the fraction of the total revolutions run under Fei

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 6 of 9
 § Also, we can include the application factor for each segment;

Feq = [∑ f (a i F
fi ei ) a
]
1/ a

See Example 11-5 from text

Selection of Ball and Straight Roller Bearings

See Example 11-7 from text

Selection of Tapered Roller Bearings

Tapered roller bearings are more complicated than ball and straight roller bearings.
• The four components of a tapered roller bearing are: cone (inner ring), cup (outer
ring), tapered rollers and cage (retainer) see fig. 11-13.
• The assembled bearing consists of two separate parts:
1. The cone assembly (cone, rollers and cage).
2. The cup.
• Tapered roller bearing can carry radial or thrust loads or any combination of the
two.
• Even if the bearing is under radial load only, because of the taper, a thrust reaction
will be induced which will separate the cone and cup assemblies.
§ One way to overcome this problem is to: use two tapered roller bearings in
opposite orientation “direct or indirect mounting” see fig. 11-14.
§ The included axial component can be found as:

0.47 Fr
Fa =
K
where, K = 0.389 cot α and α is half the cup angle.

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 7 of 9
 Ø Before a particular bearing is selected an estimated value of " is used (1.5 for
radial bearing and 0.75 for steep angle bearing).

v Fig. 11-15 shows a catalog page for tapered roller bearing from Timken Company
[90×106 rev. life].
• The design (or desired) life can be found as:
L10 for Timken
10 / 3
C 
LD = a1 a 2 a 3 a 4  10  .90(10 6 )
2/3
 FD 
4.48(1 − RD ) Damage criterion

Bearing material a4 = 1 (For spall size of 0.01 in 2 )

a 3 = a3 k a3 l a 3 m Alignment

Load zone Lubricant a3l = f T f V

Ø Temperature factor f T can be found from fig. 11-16
Ø Viscosity factor f V can be found from fig. 11-17
Ø For the usual case a2 = a3k = a3m = 1

§ Solving for  we get:

3 / 10
 LD 
C10 = a f P  2/3 6 
LD in revolutions
 4.48 f T f V (1 − RD ) 90(10 ) 

Where “#” is the equivalent load for Fr & Fa combination.

v Table 11-6 is used to determine the value of “#”.

See Example 11-8 from text

Design Assessment for Selected Rolling-Contact Bearings

When we design a machine, each component (e.g., gears, shafts, bearings, etc.) is
designed separately. However, the components interact and influence each other.

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 8 of 9
It is always a good check to do a design assessment after all elements have been
designed (or selected) to make sure that all elements will perform as they are assumed
to do.
• For example if the machine has several bearings we can do design assessment to
check the reliability of each of them and the total reliability for all.
§ For ball and straight-roller bearings, the reliability can be solved for as:
b
  a f FD  a 

 xD  
 − x0 
  C 10  
R =1−   For  

θ − x0
 
 

§ For tapered roller bearings, the reliability can be found as:

3/ 2
 xD 
R =1−  10 / 3 
[
 4.48 f T fV C10 / (a f FD ) ]

See Examples 11-9 & 11-10 from text

Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design, 8th Ed. Class Notes by: Dr. Ala Hijazi

Ch.11 Page 9 of 9