A dynamic model is developed to investigate vibrations of high speed rolling ball bearings with localized surface defects on raceways. In this model, each bearing component (i.e., inner raceway, outer raceway and rolling ball) has six degrees of freedom (DOFs) to completely describe its dynamic characteristics in three-dimensional space. Gyroscopic moment, centrifugal force, lubrication traction/slip between bearing component are included owing to high speed effects. Moreover, local defects are modeled accurately and completely with consideration of additional deflection due to material absence, changes of Hertzian contact coefficient and changes of contact force directions due to raceway curvature variations. The obtained equations of motion are solved numerically using the fourth order Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg scheme with step-changing criterion. Vibration responses of a defective bearing with localized surface defects are simulated and analyzed in both time domain and frequency domain, and the effectiveness of fault feature extraction techniques is also discussed. An experiment is carried out on an aerospace bearing test rig. By comparing the simulation results with experiments, it is confirmed that the proposed model is capable of predicting vibration responses of defective high speed rolling ball bearings effectively.

A general dynamic modeling method of ball bearing–rotor systems is proposed. Gupta's bearing model is applied to predict the rigid body motion of the system considering the three-dimensional motions of each part (i.e., outer ring, inner ring, ball, and rotor), lubrication tractions, and bearing clearances. The finite element method is used to model the elastic deformation of the rotor. The dynamic model of the whole ball bearing–rotor system is proposed by integrating the rigid body motion and the elastic vibration of the rotor. An experiment is conducted on a test rig of rotor supported by two angular contact ball bearings. The simulation results are compared with the measured vibration responses to validate the proposed model. Good agreements show the accuracy of the proposed model and its ability to predict the dynamic behavior of ball bearing–rotor systems. Based on the proposed model, vibration responses of a two bearing–rotor system under different bearing clearances were simulated and their characteristics were discussed. The proposed model may provide guidance for structural optimization, fault diagnosis, dynamic balancing, and other applications.