In high-speed ball bearings, external load has a great effect on cage stability and sliding ratio, especially for the bearings at work in the starting process. For this paper, a dynamic model of high-speed ball bearings was developed, and cage stability both under steady conditions and during the starting process was analyzed based on the model. The effect of external load on cage stability was evaluated taking into consideration the two different working conditions. The results show that cage stability is worse in the beginning of the bearing starting process. According to the investigation of cage stability on different external loads, it can be concluded that the axial load greatly influences cage dynamic performance in the bearing starting process. In addition, while ball bearings worked under steady conditions, axial load and radial load both have a great influence on cage dynamic performance. The effects of axial load on cage dynamic performance during the bearing starting process are opposite from the effects under steady conditions.

In this paper, a three-dimensional thermoelastic contact model of coated solids with the frictional heat partition considered is developed by introducing a frictional heat partition model. The influence coefficients of the temperature rise, normal displacement and stress components in the three-dimensional thermoelastic contact model are converted from their corresponding frequency response functions (FRFs) with a conversion method based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and the FRFs of solids coated with a homogeneous coating subjected to a coupled action of the mechanical loading and the frictional heat flux on its surface are deduced in the frequency domain by introducing a two-dimensional Fourier integral transform. The contact pressure and the frictional heat partition between the two bodies are solved by employing a fast numerical algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method (CGM) and a discrete convolution fast Fourier transformation (DC-FFT). Comparison between the solutions of the present model and those of a thermoelastic contact model in literature is conducted in order to validate the present model. Several specific conclusions on the effect of the sliding speed, thermoelastic properties and thickness of the coating are drawn based on the result of numerical investigation by utilizing the present model.

Thin-walled integrated flexible support structures are the major trend in the development of current rolling bearing technology. A thin-walled, integrated, squirrel-cage flexible support roller bearing, quasi-dynamic iterative finite element analysis (FEA) model is established in this paper. The FEA model is used to calculate the structural deformation of the thin-wall rings and support structures; the dynamic characteristics of the bearing are analyzed using the noncircular bearing modified quasi-dynamic model. The influence of the integrated flexible support structure on the internal load distribution and the dynamic characteristics of the roller bearing are analyzed. The results indicate that with the support of a flexible squirrel-cage, the maximum contact load is decreased by 14.2%, the loading region is enlarged by 25%, the cage slide ratio is reduced by 24%, and the fatigue life is increased by more than 50%. In addition, as the ring wall thickness increased, the results increasingly approached those under a rigid assumption.