A measurement method for friction torque between rollers and raceways of tapered roller bearings under radial heavy load conditions

A method is proposed for measuring the friction torque between rollers and raceways of radial roller bearings under radial heavy load conditions. A bearing-shaft system with one test bearing and two other bearings is specially designed and two steps are required in this method. Firstly, under given heavy load conditions, the total friction torque of the bearing-shaft system is measured from its free deceleration based on the energy conservation principle. Then, the friction torque between rollers and raceways of the test bearing is decoupled from the total torque of the bearing-shaft system by using a linear superposition approach combined with the quantitative adjustment of counterweights on the shaft. The effectiveness of the method was validated by building a test rig.