Influence of a local defect on the cage vibrations for a ball bearing

Impacts will occur when the balls pass through the local defect. The cage vibrations can be affected by the impacts, which may influence the steady state of ball bearing system. Thus, the relationship between defect size and the cage vibrations can be helpful for ascertaining the mechanisms of the cage vibrations. In this paper, a multi-body dynamic model of a ball bearing with a local defect is proposed by using the multibody commercial software. Effects of the defect sizes and inner ring speed on the angular velocity of the cage are studied. The relationship of the contact forces between the balls and bearing components are discussed too. The results show that the multi-body dynamic model can be applied to study the cage vibrations for a defective ball bearing.