Process for deriving the contact geometry for raceways and rollers of a roller bearing

In connection with a roller bearing including an inner race having an outwardly presented raceway, an outer race having an inwardly presented raceway, and rollers located between the two races and having side faces which contact the raceways, whereby for each roller a first region of contact exists between the raceway for the inner race and the roller side face and a second region of contact exists between the raceway for the outer race and the roller side face, a process for deriving the contact geometries for the raceways and roller side faces from a known load cycle having a plurality of segments, said process comprising:

• arbitrarily selecting initial contact geometries for the raceways and roller side faces;
• for the selected contact geometries computing the internal misalignment between the raceway of the outer race and the rollers and between the raceway of the inner race and the rollers for each segment of the load cycle;
• using the internal misalignments, computing modifications to the selected contact geometries to provide altered contact geometries in which substantially uniform life theoretically exists along the first regions of contact and also along the second regions of contact;
• computing the internal bearing misalignments for the altered contact geometries for each segment of the load cycle;
• computing further modifications to the altered contact geometries to provide further altered contact geometries in which substantially uniform life theoretically exists along the first and second regions of contact at the recomputed internal misalignments;
• and reiterating the foregoing steps of computing internal misalignments and computing geometry modifications and altered contact geometries until substantial convergence is achieved.

In connection with a roller bearing including a first race having a first raceway and a second race having a second raceway presented opposite the first raceway of the first race, and rollers located between the races and having side faces which contact the raceways, whereby for each roller a first contact exists between the first raceway and the roller side face and a second contact exists between the second raceway and the roller side face, a process for deriving the contact geometries for the raceways and roller side faces from a plurality of known load cycle repetitions, each having a plurality of segments including load, external misalignment, and duration, said process comprising:

• arbitrarily selecting initial contact geometries for the raceways and roller side faces;
• for the selected contact geometries computing the internal misalignment between the first raceway and the rollers and between the second raceway and the rollers for each segment of the load cycle;
• using the internal misalignments, computing modifications to the selected contact geometries to provide altered contact geometries in which substantially uniform life theoretically exists along the first contact and also along the second contact;
• computing the internal bearing misalignments for the altered contact geometries for each segment of the load cycle;
• computing further modifications to the altered contact geometries to provide further altered contact geometries in which substantially uniform life theoretically exists along the first and second contacts at the recomputed internal misalignments;
• and reiterating the foregoing steps of computing internal misalignments and computing geometry modifications and altered contact geometries until substantial convergence is achieved.