Rolling Bearing Analysis Codes “BRAIN” - The Estimation of Rolling Bearing Performance for an Automotive Application

A computer program package named “BRAIN” has been developed to simulate the kinematics and the performance of rolling bearings under various running conditions. The calculation time necessary for running BRAIN software on a PC is very short. Various outputs can be obtained using BRAIN such as running torque, roller skew angle, roller slippage, and PV values.

Several experiments have been conducted to confirm the validity of BRAIN. The running torque of a four point contact ball bearing and that of a tapered roller bearing were measured. In addition, the skew of the roller in a needle bearing was measured. These experimental results were compared with the calculation results. The experiments and the calculations showed good agreement.