11-3 Bearing Life
From mechanical engineering viewpoint, the study of antifriction bearings is
different from the study of other mechanical elements. In case of bearings,
we have to select/choose a bearing, because bearings have already been
designed and manufactured by different manufacturers.
For bearing, the term “Rating Life” is introduced by American Bearing
Manufacturers Association (ABMA).
The rating life of a group of nominally identical ball or roller bearings is the
number of revolutions (or hours at a constant speed) that 90 percent of a
group of bearings will achieve or exceed before failure occurs.
The terms minimum life, L10 life, and B10 life are also used as synonyms for
rating life.
The usual life rating for industrial applications is called L10 life. Simply, the L10
life is the number of hours/cycles in service that 90% of bearings will survive.
Or, conversely, 10% of bearings will fail in the L10 number of service hours
11-3 Bearing Life
Median life is the life in revolutions/hours which will be achieved by
50% of a group bearings. It is also known as average life.
From testing of many groups of bearings, it is found that the median life
is between 4 and 5 times the L10 life.
Each bearing manufacturer chooses a specific rating life for which load
ratings are reported.
The most commonly used rating life is 106 revolutions.
The Timken Company is a well-known exception. It chooses the rating
life of bearings as 3 000 hours at 500 rev/min, which is equal to 90(106)
revolutions.
11-3 Bearing Load Life at Rated Reliability
When nominally identical groups of bearings are tested to the life-failure
criterion at different loads, the plot of data on a log-log graph is obtained as
shown in Fig. 11–4.
The reliability associated with this plot is R = Log F
0.90 (constant reliability curve)
The regression equation of this plot is given
by
1/ 𝑎
𝐹 𝐿 =constant (11-1)
Log L
where
Figure 11-4: Typical bearing
a = 3 for ball bearings load-life log-log curve
a = 10/3 for roller bearings (cylindrical and
tapered roller)
11-3 Bearing Load Life at Rated Reliability
Rolling contact bearing:
A catalog load rating (C10) is defined as the radial load that causes 10 percent
of a group of bearings to fail at the bearing manufacturer’s rating life.
The catalog load rating (C10) is often referred to as a Basic Dynamic Load
Rating, or simply Basic Load Rating, if the manufacturer’s rating life is 106
revolutions.
To select a bearing for a given application, it is necessary to relate the
desired load and life requirements to the catalog load rating and the catalog
rating life. To do this, Eq. (11–1) can be written as
Subscripts 1 and 2 correspond to any set of load and life conditions.
If subscripts 1 and 2 refer to the catalog (Rated) and desired load and life,
respectively, Eq. (11–2) can be written as
11-3 Bearing Load Life at Rated Reliability
11-2(a)
where LR and LD are in revolutions
subscripts R and D stand for Rated and Desired
When life is given in hrs, the life in revolutions is obtained from
11-2(b)
where L is in revolutions and is in hrs, n is in rpm
From (a) and (b), one obtains
11-2(c)
11-3 Bearing Load Life at Rated Reliability
Solving Eq. 11-2(c) for FR and noting that FR = C10 , one obtains
11-3
Sometimes, following relation is used in above Eq.,
𝐿𝐷
𝑥𝐷 =
𝐿𝑅
So, C10 can be written as
C10 FD xD
1/ a
11-4 Reliability Vs. Life – The Weibull
Distribution
At constant load, the reliability R of the dimensionless life measure x of
bearings, according to Weibull Distribution, is given by
x x b where the three Weibull parameters
R exp 0
(11-4) are:
x0 x0 = guaranteed, or “minimum
expected” value of x
= characteristic parameter. For
rolling-contact bearings, this
Table 11–6 Typical Weibull corresponds to the
Parameters for Two 63.2121 percentile value of x
Manufacturers b = shape parameter that controls
the skewness. For rolling-
contact bearings, b ≈ 1.5
The life measure x is x L
L10
11-4 Reliability Vs. Life – The Weibull
Distribution
Eq. 11-4 is obtained by integrating the following Weibull probability
distribution function (PDF) of x
b x x b 1 x x b
0
exp
0
; x x0 0 (11-5)
f ( x) x0 x0 x0
0 ; x x0
The mean and standard deviation of f(x) are
x x0 x0 1 1 / b (11-6)
ˆ x x0 1 2 / b 2 1 1 / b (11-7)
The value of gamma function Γ is given in Table A-34
From Eq. (11-4), the life measure x for a specific required reliability can be
1/ b
determined as 1
x x0 x0 ln (11-8)
R
11-5 Relating Load, Life, and
The life rating and load ratingReliability
of bearings
are prescribed by manufacturers based
on 90% (R =0.9) reliability as shown by
the upper curve of Fig. 11-5.
However, a designer may expect a higher
(different) reliability as shown by the
curve BD of the same Fig. 11-5.
Then question is how we can select a
Fig. 11-5 Constant reliability
bearing from catalog prescription. This contours
can be done as follows:
The catalog information is plotted as point A, whose coordinates are (the logs of)
C10 and x10 =L/L10 = L10/L10 = 1, a point on the 0.90 reliability contour.
The design point is at D, with the coordinates (the logs of) FD and xD , a point that
is on the R = RD reliability contour.
11-5 Relating Load, Life, and
The designer must move fromReliability
point D to point A via point B as follows.
For the constant reliability contour (BD), Eq. (11–2) is valid and can be written as
1/a
FB x1/B a FD x1/Da xD
FB FD (a)
xB
Along a constant load line AB, Eq. (11-4) applies. So,
xB x0
b
1/ b
RD RB exp 1
xB x0 x0 ln (b)
x0 RD
From Eqs. (a) and (b), one obtains
1/ a 1/ a
xD xD
FB FD FD (c)
x0 x0 ln(1/ RD
1/ b
x
B
11-5 Relating Load, Life, and
Reliability
Obviously, FB = C10 and including an application factor aF with the design load,
one finds
1/ a 1/ a
xD xD
C10 aF FD aF FD (11-9)
x0 x0 ln(1/ RD
1/ b
xB
The application factor serves as a factor of safety to increase the design load to
consider any possibility of overload, dynamic load, and uncertainty.
Eq. (11-9) can be rewritten as (replacing ln(1/RD ) approximately by 1-RD , see
calculation in the text book) 1/ a 1/ a
xD xD
C10 aF FD aF FD (11-10)
x0 x0 1 RD
1/ b
x
B
Either Eq. (11–9) or Eq. (11–10) may be used to convert from a design situation
with a desired load, life, and reliability to a catalog load rating based on a rating
life at 90 percent reliability.
The Weibull parameters are usually provided in the manufacturer’s catalog.
11-5 Relating Load, Life, and
Reliability
Table 11–6 Typical Weibull Parameters for Two
Manufacturers
If a mechanical system (consisting of several components) is considered to be
failed for the failure of any one component, the system is said to be a series
system. If the reliability of component i is Ri in a series system consisting of n
components, then the reliability of the system is given by
n
R Ri R1 R2 R3 R4 ..... (1-9), pp 24
i 1
11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust
Loading
Ball bearings are capable of resisting radial and thrust loading. When combined
radial and thrust load is applied to a ball bearing, an equivalent radial load is
determined.
The equivalent radial load is the load that does the same damage as the
combined radial and thrust loads together.
Consider
Fr = radial load, Fa = axial load and, Fe = equivalent radial load as shown below
Fr Fe
=
Fa
Equivalent radial load Fe causing same damage
11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust
Loading
A rotation factor V is defined such that V is intended to correct
for the rotating-ring
conditions. The factor of
V = 1 when the inner ring rotates 1.2 for outer-ring
rotation is simply an
V = 1.2 when the outer ring rotates. acknowledgment that
Also, two dimensionless groups Fe / (VFr) and the fatigue life is
reduced under these
Fa / (VFr) are defined and plotted as shown in conditions.
Fig. 11-6. Fe
The experimental data can be VFr
approximated by two straight-line 1
segments (red lines). X Y
The abscissa e is defined by the
intersection of the two lines. Fa
0 e VFr
The equations for the two lines shown in
Fig. 11-6
Fig. 11–6 are
11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust
Loading F e
VFr
(11-11a)
1
X Y
(11-11b)
Fa
where, 0 e VFr
X = ordinate intercept
Y = slope of the line for Fa / (VFr) > e
The above two Eqs. can be written as a single equation as
(11-12)
Where
i =1 for Fa / (VFr) ≤ e
=2 for Fa / (VFr) > e
11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust
Loading
The X and Y factors depend upon the geometry and construction of the
specific bearing.
Table 11–1 lists representative values of X1, Y1, X2, and Y2 as a function
of e.
e is a function of (Fa/C0) where C0 is the basic static load rating and C10
is the basic dynamic load rating.
The basic static load rating is the load that will produce a total
permanent deformation in the raceway and rolling element at any
contact point of 0.0001 times the diameter of the rolling element
The basic static and dynamic load rating are tabulated in the bearing
manufacturers’ publications as shown in Table 11–2..
For self-aligning bearings Since straight or cylindrical roller
V = 1 for rotation of either ring bearings will take no axial load, or very
little, the Y factor is always zero.
11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust
Loading
Table 11–1 Equivalent Radial Load Factors for Ball Bearings
11-6 Combined Radial and Thrust
Bearings
Loading
Table 11–2 Dimensions and Load Ratings for Single-Row 02-Series Deep-Groove and Angular-Contact Ball
Dimension-Series Code
The ABMA has established standard boundary dimensions for bearings.
These include the bearing bore, the outside diameter (OD), the width, and
the fillet sizes on the shaft and housing shoulders.
The standard is flexible in the sense that, for a given bore, there is an
assortment of widths and outside diameters of bearing.
Similarly, for a particular outside diameter, there are different bores and
widths of bearings.
(a) (b)
Figure 11–8 Shaft and housing shoulder diameters d S and
dH should be adequate to ensure good bearing support.
Dimension-Series Code
According to ABMA, bearings are identified by two-digit numbers called the
dimension-series code, which represents the relative size of the boundary
dimensions of the bearing cross-section for metric bearings.
The first digit is the width series while the second digit is the diameter series.
Figure 11–7 shows the variety of bearings that may be obtained with a
particular bore.
Figure 11-7
Dimension-Series Code
Note that the dimension-series code does not reveal the dimensions directly,
it is necessary to resort to tabulations. An example of the bearing of 02 series
is shown in Table 11–2.
Table 11–2
Dimensions and
Load Ratings for
Single-Row 02-
Series Deep-
Groove and
Angular-Contact
Ball Bearings