Development of a fatigue life Prediction Program for the Hub Bearing Unit

To predict the fatigue life of the Hub Bearing Unit(HBU), preload effect and initial axial clearance have to be considered. Various theory and equations for the HBU design used in the passenger car are well developed in many literatures. But most design hand book for bearings or bearing catalogues do not consider the initial axial clearance and preload effect. So there are limits and difficulties to use those data in actual bearing design. To consider the preload effect and initial axial clearance, complex elliptic integrals and nonlinear equations are involved. These equations are difficult to solve during the design process. In order to solve these problems effectively, a program is developed to solve these equations reliably and to help the designer in obtaining the performance data of the HBU such as load distribution, maximum contact stress and fatigue life. The preprocessor of the program helps users to prepare the input data through a dialog box and the post processor makes graphical presentation of the result. In this paper, theoretical and numerical background for the prediction of the fatigue life of the HBU is explained. A simple example is presented to show the usefulness of developed program.

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