Carrying angle and carrying capacity of a large single row ball bearing as a function of geometry parameters of the rolling contact and the supporting structure stiffness

The carrying capacity of large dimension four-point ball bearings depends also on the actual carrying angle which is a function of the nominal carrying angle, the actual play, the shift direction of raceway centre (required to assure the necessary play), osculation, the elasticity of supporting structures, and the load combination acting on the rotational connection – bearing. The paper shows a computation model, allowing the correct choice of raceway curvature centre shift in the raceway section plane with respect to the rolling element circle. Thus the desired nominal carrying angle, and also the actual carrying angle can be reached if the elastic displacement of contact points and the supporting structure are considered under external radial, axial, and combined loads.