Efficient Finite Element modelling of crossed roller wire race slewing bearings. (September 2021) - Martín, Iñigo
Abstract: Wire race slewing bearings are a special type of bearings where rolling elements run over a race-shaped steel wire embedded into the rings. In contrast to conventional slewing bearings, no efficient FE modelling strategies have been proposed. In this sense, an analytical formulation to simulate the roller-wire-ring subset was developed in a previous work. In the present work, that formulation is implemented in a commercial FE software via user-defined matrix element, so that bearing assemblies can be analysed with huge computational cost savings and little convergence problems. As a drawback, a user-driven or iterative solving process is needed. As an alternative, a non-linear spring-based option is also presented, which overcomes this drawback at the cost of less accuracy. Graphical Abstract: ga1 Highlights: There are no efficient FE strategies for wire bearings in the literature. Roller-wire-ring analytical formulation is implemented in a FE model. User-defined-matrix and non-linear spring strategies are employed. Validation with a reference detailed FE model is carried out. The new methodology avoids large Finite Element models.