Thermal Model of a Ball Bearing using the State-Space approach and Light Gray-Box Lumped Parameter Thermal Network

• Published in: MATEC web of conferences 2023, Vol.383, p.5
• Main Authors: Cabezas, Sebastian, Tóth, Dániel, Hegedűs, György, Bencs, Péter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ball bearing; light gray-box lumped parameter thermal network; state-space approach; thermal model
• ISSN: 2261-236X; 2261-236X
• DOI: 10.1051/matecconf/202338300005

In this paper, a thermal model of a ball bearing subjected to radial loads is presented. By the application of the State-Space approach and the Light Gray-Box lumped parameter thermal network, the temperature of the inner components of a ball bearing, these are: outer-race T o ; balls T b and inner-race T i ; and the temperature of the housing T h were determined. The relation between the external force, rotational speed, lubrication type, were investigated for the purpose of determining the total frictional moment M f that occurs among the elements comprising the ball bearing. Subsequently, the total heat losses Q f were calculated together with the heat distribution along the elements of the ball bearing. The analytical results were validated experimentally. It could be seen that the standard deviation of temperature between the thermal model and the experimental measurements over the outer-race T o and housing T h were sd = 5.06 % and sd = 0.33 % . Moreover, the temperature of the balls T b and the inner-race T i were predicted. In this context, the results show good agreement with real data, therefore, the thermal model can be utilized to foresee the thermal behavior of bearings with similar geometry that undergo effects of radial loads.