Optimal design of tapered roller bearings for maximum rating life under combined loads

Using the relationships of the ISO 281 standard, this paper optimizes the internal dimensions of tapered roller bearings for maximum rating life. The bearing system addressed contains two identical bearings subjected to an arbitrary combination of centred radial and axial forces. It is shown that the basic rating life increases more than quadratically with the roller infill and the aspect ratio of the rollers, increases with the sixth power of the pitch diameter of the roller set and decreases with the third power of the applied radial force. Further, for any given ratio of axial to radial force, an optimal contact angle exists which maximizes the rating life of the bearing pair, irrespective of the actual bearing size and ratio of roller diameter to pitch diameter. The optimization procedure can either be used to design custom-made bearings or to select from manufacturers’ catalogues the bearing with the best contact angle for any assigned loading condition.