The bearing-rotor-gear system is an important mechanical component for transmitting motion and power. Due to the complex responses, the condition assessment of the transmission system becomes more difficult. Thus, a model of the bearing-rotor-gear system with a misaligned rotor is built for implementing the complex response analysis. The misalignment rotor is realized by offset connection of couplings, and the creative excitation force is transferred to the bearing inner ring through the rotor. The constructed model is checked by the corresponding experiment. From the simulation results, it is found that vibration responses are modulated by rotor frequencies, and there are rotor frequencies, harmonic frequencies of bearings, and gear pairs in the spectrum. When the misalignment defect is deepening, the high-order harmonic responses are excited. If the revolving speed increases, the modulation of the rotor frequencies is accentuated, the vibration intensity generated by gear pairs is attenuated, while the harmonic response and super-harmonic response of bearings can be suppressed, and the system vibrates mainly at the low-frequency band. When the load becomes higher, the amplitudes of the rotor frequencies, meshing frequencies, and defect frequencies are all increased.

The sliding of the rolling element in the load zone would cause the bearing’s wear and failure at high speed under elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) condition. Aiming at this phenomenon, considering lubrication oil film, time-varying displacement, radial clearance, and comprehensive stiffness, a five degree-of-freedom (DOF) dynamic model of rolling bearing with local defect is proposed based on isothermal EHL and which is validated by experimental data. The variation of oil film stiffness, comprehensive stiffness, and vibration characteristics of rolling bearing is studied under different speeds and loads. The results show that the lubricating oils with different viscosities have a certain influence on the bearing oil film thickness and comprehensive stiffness. As the load increases, the oil film stiffness and comprehensive stiffness would increase, and the oil film thickness would decrease. And as the tangential speed increases, the oil film stiffness would increase, and the oil film thickness and comprehensive stiffness would decrease. The vibration amplitude of the rolling bearing is enhanced with the increase of the rotation speed and the radial load. This model is helpful for the optimization, the correct use of lubricants, and life prediction of rolling bearing.

This paper presents a simplified model of misaligned-installing matched bearings, which is always constituted by two angular contact bearings in machine tools. Aiming at the effect of parallel misalignment arising in practical installing between two matched bearings, the nonlinear restoring force is derived and a matched bearings-rotor system model is established with Timoshenko elements. The Continued-Poincare–Newton–Floquet method is employed to analyze the global nonlinear characteristics with a varying clearance. Compared with the normally installed matched bearings-rotor system, it can be found that the amount of misalignment plays an important factor both on the global stability and vibration amplitude for a misaligned matched bearings-rotor system. The broadest unstable speed region always arise while the amount of misalignment equals to the initial clearance, and a slightly larger misalignment than the initial clearance can easily help the system from unstable dynamic behavior to periodic behavior. Meanwhile, a horizontal increasing misalignment will mainly affect the horizontal dynamic response by the way of magnifying and right shifting the vibration amplitude peak on speed axis obviously, but do a slight opposite effect on vertical normally installed direction. The results show that a proper amount of misalignment may be beneficial for the dynamic characteristic for the matched bearings-rotor system.

Due to their excellent stability and zero leakage capability, thrust bearings with herringbone spiral grooves are frequently used in transmission mechanisms. However, the lubrication mechanism of thrust bearings has not been clearly understood and explained, preventing the optimization of the bearing performance. Thus, this paper is devoted to solving this problem by building a three-dimensional finite element flow model. In this model, the change in viscosity temperature is considered using Roelands equation, and the turbulence and cavitation are taken into consideration. Using the established model, the influence of parameters such as spiral angle, groove width ratio, and rotational speed on the cavitation area of the thrust bearing are analyzed. The pressure contour and speed distribution are obtained inside the clearance, as well as the volume fraction of the gas phase at the end face. Finally, according to the analysis results, the optimum structural parameter for the herringbone spiral groove structure is proposed, which enables higher bearing stability and provides a reference for engineering practice.

Due to bolt looseness or operating ambient temperature, fit clearance can often be found between the outer ring and housing. The vibration characteristics of a cylindrical roller bearing with localized defects are greatly affected by the fit clearance and the accuracy of bearing fault diagnosis may be reduced. Thus, a mathematical model for a cylindrical roller bearing was constructed and the interaction between the outer ring and housing was described. The classical localized defects were modeled, such as the inner ring defect, outer ring defect and roller defect. The relative experiments were conducted to check the constructed model. Then, it was found that the RMS (Root Mean Square) of housing acceleration decreased with increasing housing stiffness and viscous damping. When the fit clearance and friction coefficient increased, the RMS values increased. Except for housing stiffness and viscous damping, there were no uniform change rules of defect frequency amplitudes for other conditions. In the bearing with an outer ring defect or roller defect, the shock times of housing acceleration and the contact force between outer ring and housing were delayed, while fit clearance decreased. However, contrary variation trends were found for the inner ring defect. If the phase difference between defect location and rotor unbalanced force increased, the RMS and acceleration fluctuation amplitudes for the inner ring defect decreased. When the location angle of the outer ring defect increased, RMS and frequency amplitudes increased and RMS_y/RMS decreased. The calculated results may provide the theoretical foundation for condition monitoring rotating machinery systems.