Optimal design of spherical roller bearings based on multiple tasking operating requirements

PurposeThe fatigue, thermal and wear-based bearing lives are the most important factors in the design of spherical roller bearings (SRBs). The main novelty of the present work is consideration of thermal effects as an additional objective function. The dynamic capacity (Cd), the elasto-hydrodynamic minimum film thickness (hmin) and the maximum bearing temperature (Tmax) are related directly with overall lives of the bearing, and these constitute the multiple tasking operating requirements for the design of bearings.Design/methodology/approachThese tasks depend upon various bearing design variables and associated constraints to help in formulating the realistic design optimization problem and in the present work these have been used to get optimal designs of SRBs in the form of Pareto-optimum fronts by using genetic algorithms.FindingsThe optimized lives show higher values as compared to the standard lives and better design choices as compared to that are available in the literature. The robustness of obtained designs are shown by conducting the sensitivity analysis of optimized operating requirements by perturbing optimum bearing variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe robustness of the design could be improved by optimizing tolerances of design variables based on desired variation in multiple tasking operating requirements.Practical implicationsFor the aerospace and space applications such critical design of bearings are required based on multiple tasking operating requirements. For example for higher temperature application in gearboxes, turbines and drilling equipment.Originality/valueIn critical applications, multiple tasking operating requirements are essential and often bearings put limit to the life of satellites and aircraft, and bearing design methodology proposed and implemented in the present paper addresses these issues, especially addition of thermal issue in bearing design.