THERMO-MECHANICAL FINITE ELEMENT INVESTIGATION OF A TIMKEN A4050/A4138 TAPERED ROLLER BEARING

Tapered roller bearings simultaneously carry radial and axial loads while operating under thermal conditions generated by friction, lubrication, and the surrounding environment. This study investigates the thermo-mechanical response of a Timken A4050/A4138 tapered roller bearing using finite element analysis. A three-dimensional bearing assembly comprising the cone, cup, and rolling elements was modeled in SolidWorks and analyzed in ANSYS Workbench. Mechanical and thermal material properties, roller–raceway contacts, mesh refinement, structural constraints, radial loads, and a temperature field were defined. Static Structural and Thermo-Structural analyses were performed for radial loads of 1, 5, and 11.5 kN. Total deformation, equivalent von-Mises stress, and maximum roller–raceway contact pressure were compared. At 11.5 kN, total deformation increased from 0.018458 to 0.021473 mm, a 16.33% increase, while equivalent stress changed from 419.39 to 377.37 MPa and contact pressure from 354.34 to 308.87 MPa. Non-linear peaks occurred at 5 kN in the thermo-structural case, with 542.75 MPa stress and 357.81 MPa contact pressure. The results demonstrate that thermal loading measurably changes bearing deformation and contact behavior and should be considered in performance evaluation.