Influence of Load and Design Conditions on Lubricant Film Thickness in the Deep Groove Ball Bearing

The study investigates the influence of the load distribution on lubricant film thickness between the rolling elements and raceways of the deep groove ball bearing using the conventional theory of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) with an applied original mathematical model of load distribution between the rolling elements developed by the authors. A presented mathematical model takes into account the influence of bearing operational load and internal geometry (number of balls and radial internal clearance) on lubricant film thickness between balls and raceways. The analyses show that the lubricant film thickness between the balls and raceways decreases with the decrease of the number of balls, a decrease of bearing load and increase of radial internal clearance, due to the increase of inequality of load distribution. The obtained analytical results can be useful for bearing design development as well as in analyses of lubrication conditions of rolling elements bearings in general.