Contact Analysis of Aircraft Engine Bearing

Mechanical Engineering

Modern gas turbine engine bearings are subjected to higher speeds and different loads in order to operate the aircraft efficiently. These bearings will be subjected to unbalance loads during normal flight and uni-directional radial load during maneuver. The stress developed at the contact zone between the rolling element and raceways dictates the limiting load, which in turn determines the bearing life. There will be increase in friction at the contact areas between the rolling elements and the raceways, the rolling elements and the cage and in the annular gaps between the cage and the races. The lubricating oil is usually supplied to the rolling elements through the under- race lubrication method in gas turbine engines. The quantity is very small amount for lubrication whereas most of the lubricating oil is used to remove the heat generated from the bearing. Therefore, prediction of contact stress in bearing components is significant for life analysis of bearings. Computer Optimized Ball and Roller Bearing Analysis (COBRA-AHS) is a software program which has the capability to design and analysis the bearings operating at higher speeds with mechanical and thermal loading. This paper describes the methodology to predict the contact stress, temperature distribution on typical aero engine bearing with COBRA-AHS program and FEA tool i.e. ABAQUS. The scope of the work is to estimate the contact stress, temperature distribution on a typical aero engine bearing with finite element analysis program and validation of these results with analytical calculations

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