Original Article

Finite element analysis of fatigue life for

deep groove ball bearing

Proc IMechE Part L:

J Materials: Design and Applications
227(1) 7081
! IMechE 2012
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/1464420712445968
pil.sagepub.com

Song Deng, Lin Hua, Xinghui Han and Song Huang

Abstract
The aim of this article is to develop an accurate three-dimensional finite element model of deep groove ball bearing to
analyze fatigue lives for outer race and inner race. By the finite element analysis, the stress and strain datasets for outer
race and inner race are obtained and used to calculate the fatigue lives. Based on a reliable fatigue criterion, the effect of
various applied loads on the fatigue lives of outer race and inner race is investigated. Several parameters, namely the
raceway groove curvature radii of outer race and inner race and the thicknesses of outer race and inner race are varied
to investigate their effect on the fatigue lives. Research results provide useful guidelines for determining the design
parameters.
Keywords
Deep groove ball bearing, finite element analysis, fatigue life
Date received: 24 November 2011; accepted: 27 March 2012

Introduction
Rolling bearings are widely applied in aeronautical,
marine, automotive and machinery industries because
of their low friction coecient, low start-up moment/
torque and compact structure. However, with the
development of high-speed vehicle, it becomes more
and more important for improving the fatigue life of
rolling bearings. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate
the fatigue life of rolling bearings to ensure reliability.
At present, some scholars have carried out
researches on rolling contact fatigue of bearings by
using analytical and experimental methods.18 All of
the studies provided an important guide for exploring
the rolling contact fatigue failure of bearings.
Especially, it should be noted that on one hand, the
large majority of the studies directly investigate the
eect of surface texturing, oxide inclusions, defect
size, load magnitude and defect location on rolling
contact fatigue using experimental methods. On the
other hand, existing research is mainly concentrated
on equivalent two-dimensional (2D) nite element
(FE) models to simulate the initiation and propagation of fatigue damage, the angle of crack with respect
to contact surface and the eect of the processinduced residual stress on the fatigue damage. The
above research results emphasize mainly the eect of
surface texturing, residual stress and material defect
on the rolling contact fatigue damage, but little attention is paid to the eect of design parameters of
rolling bearing on the bearing fatigue damage.

In addition, an equivalent 2D FE model of cylinders

do not correspond well with a real rolling bearing.
The SmithWatsonTopper fatigue law,7 considered
in the case of low-cycle fatigue, is also unreasonable
for the long-life characteristic of rolling bearing.
Therefore, it is of great importance to use the highcycle fatigue law and the real 3D FE model of rolling
bearing to investigate the fatigue lives of outer race
and inner race.
In this article, a real 3D FE model of deep groove
ball bearing is developed using the ANSYS software
environment. The stress and strain datasets from the
FE analysis are applied to evaluate the fatigue lives of
outer race and inner race. Based on the high-cycle
fatigue law of BrownMiller strainlife equation
with Morrows mean stress correction,9 the eect of
the combination of axial and radial load on the fatigue lives of outer race and inner race is investigated.
Design parameters, namely the raceway groove curvature radii of outer race and inner race and the thicknesses of outer race and inner race are varied to

School of Automotive Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology,

China
Corresponding author:
Lin Hua, School of Automotive Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of
Advanced Technology of Automotive Parts, Wuhan University of
Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
Email: lhuasvs@yahoo.com.cn

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Deng et al.

71

investigate their eect on the fatigue lives of outer race

and inner race. The obtained results provide useful
guidelines for the fatigue life design of deep groove
ball bearing.

Calculation of fatigue life

In this article, specialized fatigue analysis software is
used to analyze the fatigue lives of outer race and
inner race. Usually, the stress and strain datasets are
obtained by the FE analysis for the maximum applied
load. Each stress and strain tensors datasets are scaled
by a ratio of the loading history to the constant amplitude load. The ratio is used to represent the variation
of applied load with time. The ratio of the loading
history to the constant amplitude load is shown
in Figure 1.
The sound selection of fatigue criterion is the fundamental starting point for the accurate prediction of
fatigue life of rolling bearing. Normally, the life of a
fatigue crack is divided into three phases covering
crack initiation and growth.10 The phases can be
divided into: (I) shear stress-driven initiation at the
surface, (II) transient crack growth behavior, and
(III) subsequent tensile/compressive or shear-driven
crack growth. For this reason, normal strain and
shear strain, caused by normal stress and shear
stress, respectively, play a signicant role in the initiation and propagation of cracks on the raceway
surface.
The total strain is the sum of the elastic and plastic
strains.9 A smooth test specimen can be cycled
between xed strain limits until it develops a fatigue
crack. If several specimens are tested under dierent
constant-amplitude strain cycles, the equation for the
relationship between elastic strain amplitude and
endurance can be obtained as follows

Manson and Con11 discussed the relationship

between plastic strain amplitude and endurance and
it is expressed as follows

c
"p
"0f 2Nf
2

Thus, the total strainlife relationship, using equations (1) and (2), can be represented as follows
0

b

c
" f

2Nf "0f 2Nf

2
E

where Nf is the number of cycles, 2Nf is the number of

reversals, b is the fatigue strength exponent,  0 f is the
fatigue strength coecient, c is the fatigue ductility
exponent, "0 f is the fatigue ductility coecient and E
is the elastic modulus.
A multiaxial stress eld appears on the raceways
when a rolling bearing is in service. Thus, the
BrownMiller combined strain criterion is used to
evaluate the fatigue life of rolling bearing, because it
proposes that the maximum fatigue damage occurs on
the plane, which experiences the maximum shear strain
amplitude and that the damage is a function of both
the shear strain and the strain normal to this plane.9 If
the maximum shear strain is  max and the strain normal
to the maximum shear strain is "n, then from Mohrs
strain circle,  max and "n are represented, as follows
max "1  "2

2
2
"n

"1 "2
2

4
5

For uniaxial plane stress, "2 "1 and "3 "1 , so

that
max "1  "3 1 "1

0

b
"e f

2Nf
2
E

1
"n

"1 "3 1  "1

2
2

6
7

The strainlife equation (3) is rewritten with the shear

strain amplitude and normal strain amplitude as
follows
Applied load(Na)

f0

b

c
max "n

c1
2Nf c2 "0f 2Nf
2
2
E

Nl/Na

Loading history(Nl)

For the Poissons ratio " 0:3, max 1:3"1 and

"n 0:35"1 . Therefore the constant c1 is 1.65. For
Poissons ratio of 0.5 (full plasticity), the same
method gives c2 1.75. Thus, the complete Brown
Miller strainlife equation is obtained as follows
f0

b

c
max "n

1:65
2Nf 1:75"0f 2Nf
2
2
E

Figure 1. Loading history of fatigue analysis in this article.

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Furthermore, fatigue tests with a tensile/compressive mean stress produce shorter lives than tests with
same amplitude at zero mean stress, so it is of great
signicance to amend accurately the fatigue life of
machine elements using the mean stress correction
method. Morrow12 proposed a simple correction,
and corrected the elastic term of the strainlife relationship by subtracting the mean stress  m for
the cycle. BrownMiller strainlife equation with
Morrows mean stress correction is represented as
follows


0



nm

b

c
f
max "n
2Nf 1:75"0f 2Nf

1:65
E
2
2
10
Equation is based on the observation that mean stress
eects are more signicant at long lives, where elastic
conditions predominate. Therefore, equation (10) is
adopted to evaluate the fatigue life of rolling bearing
in this article.

FE analysis of fatigue life

Establishment of geometric model
In this article, 6208 deep groove ball bearing is considered as the research object of fatigue life evaluation. A 3D geometrical model of deep groove ball
bearing is established under the PRO/E software
environment. Then, several parameters, such as load
magnitude, raceway groove curvature radii of outer
race and inner race and their thicknesses, are varied to
calculate the fatigue lives of outer race and inner race.
The basic geometrical data of 6208 deep groove ball
bearing are shown in Table 1. Plane sketch and 3D
assembly of 6208 deep groove ball bearing are shown
in Figures 2 and 3, respectively.

Development of FE model and simulation

The model for fatigue analysis presented in this article
is based on the assumption that the material is homogeneous and isotropic, i.e. without imperfections or
damages of material. In order to acquire accurate

Table 1. Basic geometrical data of 6208 deep groove ball

bearing.
Name

Symbol Value

Bearing outside diameter (mm)

Bearing bore diameter (mm)
Bearing width (mm)
Steel ball diameter (mm)
Steel ball number
Outer raceway groove curvature radius (mm)
Inner raceway groove curvature radius (mm)

D
d
B
Dw
Z
re
ri

80
40
18
12.7
9
6.54
6.54

calculation results, The FE analysis of 6208 deep

groove ball bearing is performed with eight-node isoparametric hexahedron elements and solid95 elements. The bearing material is bearing steel GCr15
which corresponds with AISI52100 bearing steel
with the properties of Youngs modulus
E 2.067  105 MPa, Poissons ratio  0:3 and friction coecient between steel balls and raceways of
outer race and inner race of 0.15. Through the FE
analysis, the stress distribution of outer race and
inner race can be acquired. There are several steps
of developing the FE model as follows.1316
1. The 3D geometrical models, which are displayed
in Figure 3 with the format of IGES, are imported
into the ANSYS software. Then outer race and
inner race are divided into 10 subvolumes by auxiliary intermediate surfaces to suit solid45 meshdividing, respectively, as shown in Figure 4.
2. Input FE method mesh-dividing parameters. Some
appropriate parameters are used to control FE
method mesh-dividing pattern of the deep groove
ball bearing, that is to say, to determine where
should be nely divided and where should be
roughly divided. Consequently, raceway areas of
inner race (Figure 5(a)) and outer race are nely
divided in this study. FE method mesh-dividing
pattern of outer race and inner race can be changed
simply through changing values of the FE method
mesh-dividing parameters. In a word, some
rational values of the FE method mesh-dividing
parameters are benecial to improve the accuracy
of simulated results and reduce the computer calculation time. Steel balls and bearing retainer are
meshed freely with solid95 elements.
3. Setting contact pairs for the deep groove ball bearing. The assumption of load distribution in the
contact area is not required since the contact algorithm17 of the general computer program is
employed to get the contact area and stresses by
application of the load to inner race while outer
race is considered at rest. Therefore, contact pairs
(a contact pair consists of a target surface and a
contact surface) are dened in the contact position
when rolling bearing is in service. Generally, the
surface that has larger curvature will be chosen as
the contact surface, thus surfaces of steel balls are
picked as contact surface and raceway surfaces of
outer race and inner race are dened as target
surface.
4. Dening the constraint condition. In the Cartesian
coordinate system, nodes on the cylinder surface
of outer race contacting with bearing seat are considered as xed. Nodes on the semicylindrical surface of inner race contacting with shaft are
selected to take the radial force. Nodes on one
side face of inner ring are used to take the axial
force. By varying radial force and axial force, the
stress and strain datasets of outer race and inner

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73

Figure 4. Subvolumes of outer race and inner race.

Figure 2. Plane sketch of 6208 deep groove ball bearing.

6. The stress and strain datasets from FE analysis are

combined with the loading history shown in
Figure 1. It is also necessary to set the fatigue
experimental data for the material bearing steel
GCr15. The stresslife curve and material data
of material bearing steel GCr15 can be acquired
from the handbook of design for fatigue strength18
as shown in Table 2 and Figure 8, respectively.

Effect of applied load on the fatigue life

Figure 3. 3D assembly of 6208 deep groove ball bearing.

race can be obtained. The FE model of 6208 deep

groove ball bearing is shown in Figure 5(b).
5. After completing the FE model, the FE analysis
can be carried out. Contact stress distribution of
outer race and inner race is acquired as shown
in Figures 6 and 7, respectively.

In engineering machinery, certain measures are usually adopted to take bearings a light axial load to
eliminate the internal clearances of bearings. In addition, deep groove ball bearings always bear a radial
load when they are in service. Therefore, it is necessary to research the role of the combination of axial
load and radial load on the fatigue life of deep groove
ball bearing.
Figure 9 presents the eect of axial load and radial
load on the fatigue life of inner race. It can be seen
from the gure that the fatigue life of inner race
decreases gradually with the increase of radial load
when the axial load is constant, and it decreases gradually with the increase of axial load when the radial
load is constant. By the comparison of data points on
the curves, it is found that the fatigue life of inner race
is the highest when radial load is 4.5 kN and axial load
is zero, and it is the lowest when radial load is 12 kN
and axial load is 6 kN. Therefore, it can be concluded
that axial and radial loads have an important eect on
the fatigue life of inner race. The larger axial and

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Figure 5. Illustration of: (a) mesh refinement for raceway areas of inner race; (b) finite element model of 6208 deep groove ball
bearing.

Figure 6. Contact stress distribution of outer race.

radial loads are, the lower the fatigue life of inner race
is, and vice versa.
Figure 10 presents the eect of axial load and
radial load on the fatigue life of outer race. From
Figure 10, it is found that the fatigue life of outer
race decreases gradually with the increase of radial
load in the same axial load condition. Similarly, the
fatigue life of outer race also decreases with the
increase of axial load in the same radial load condition. When axial load are zero and 1.5 kN, respectively, outer race is in the innite fatigue life state at
the value of radial load of 4.5 kN. (Generally, it can
be regarded that bearing steel can withstand innite
times cycle of stress if it can withstand 107 times cycle
of constant amplitude load without destroyed and 107
times is used to indicate that material is in the innite
fatigue life state.18) When radial load is 12 kN and
axial load is 6 kN, the fatigue life of outer race is
lowest. Therefore, axial and radial loads also have
an important eect on the fatigue life of outer race.

The fatigue life of outer race decreases with the

increases of axial and radial loads, and vice versa.
Figure 11 presents the comparison of the fatigue
life of outer race with that of inner race. From
Figure 11, it can be seen that the fatigue life of
outer race is always longer than that of inner race
with the increase of radial load when axial load is a
certain constant. Similarly, the fatigue life of outer
race is always longer than that of inner race with
the increase of axial load in the same radial load condition. This is because the contact area between steel
ball and outer raceway is larger than that between
steel ball and inner raceway according to interior contact and exterior tangent of circle. Therefore, it can be
found that the fatigue life of outer race is longer than
that of inner race under any combination of radial
and axial loads.

Effect of design parameters on the

fatigue life for investigation
Selecting suitable design parameters has a particular
signicance in improving the fatigue lives of inner race
and outer race. In this section, to study the inuences
of the raceway groove curvature radii of outer race
and inner race and their thicknesses on the fatigue life
of deep groove ball bearing, the raceway groove
curvature radii of outer race and inner race are
varied from 6.54 to 8.29 mm, respectively, and the
thicknesses of outer race and inner race are varied
from 2 to 3.65 mm, respectively. But there has no
change for other design parameters of rolling
bearings.

Influence of raceway groove curvature radius on the

fatigue life
Selecting suitable raceway groove curvature radius is
of great importance for the friction reduction between

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75

Figure 7. Contact stress distribution of inner race.

Table 2. Material data of material bearing steel GCr15.

Name

Symbol

Value

Fatigue strength exponent

Fatigue strength coefficient (MPa)
Fatigue ductility exponent
Fatigue ductility coefficient
Youngs modulus (MPa)

b
0 f
c
"0 f
E

0.094
2642
0.583
0.161
206.700

steel balls and raceway and the enhancement of load

carrying capacity of rolling bearings. Figure 12
describes the eect of outer groove curvature radius
on the fatigue life of outer race. From the gure, it can
be seen that the fatigue life of outer race rstly slow
decreases, subsequently remarkable reduces with the
increase of outer groove curvature radius under the
dierent radial loads. When the radial load is 6 kN,
the fatigue life of outer race decreases slowly with the
increase of outer groove curvature radius until the
outer groove curvature radius is 7.79 mm.
Subsequently, the fatigue life of outer race decreases
sharply until material damage occurs at the value of
outer groove curvature radius of 8.04 mm. This is
because the contact area of steel balls with outer
race decreases gradually with the increase of outer
groove curvature radius, which causes the contact
stress of outer race to increase gradually until outer
race fails due to overload. When the radial load is
9 kN, the fatigue life of outer race descends gradually
with the increase of outer groove curvature radius
until the outer groove curvature radius is 7.04 mm.
Subsequently, the fatigue life of outer race decreases
sharply until material damage occurs at the value of
outer groove curvature radius of 7.30 mm. When the
radial load is 12 kN, the fatigue life curve of outer race
has the same variation with that when the radial load
is 9 kN. When the radial load is 15 kN, the fatigue life
of outer race descends remarkably with the increase of
outer groove curvature radius until the outer groove

curvature radius is 6.80 mm. Subsequently, the overload failure of outer race occurs because of the small
contacting area between steel balls and outer race,
which results in the contact stress exceeding the ultimate strength. From the results, it can be summarized
that outer groove curvature radius and radial load
have an important inuence on the fatigue life of
outer race. When the radial load is small, the bigger
the outer groove curvature radius is, the easier the
overload failure of outer race occurs. Conversely,
when the radial load is large, outer race can fail due
to overload even if outer groove curvature radius
is small.
Figure 13 describes the eect of outer groove
curvature radius on the fatigue life of inner race. It
can be seen from the gure that the four curves have a
similar variation. That is to say, they rstly increase
gradually, and then tend to become stable with the
increase of outer groove curvature radius under the
dierent radial loads. When the radial load is 6 kN,
the fatigue life of inner race increases gradually
with the increase of outer groove curvature radius
until the outer groove curvature radius is 6.8 mm.
Subsequently, there is no signicant change of the
fatigue life of inner race with the increase of outer
groove curvature radius. By comparing the other fatigue life curves with that when the radial load is 6 kN,
it is found that they have the same variation with that
when the radial load is 6 kN. Therefore, it is concluded that the fatigue life of inner race increases
gradually with the increase of outer groove curvature
radius when it is less than 6.8 mm. There is no signicant change of the fatigue life of inner race with the
increase of outer groove curvature radius when it is
larger than 6.8 mm.
Figure 14 shows the eect of inner groove curvature radius on the fatigue life of inner race. From the
gure, it is found that the fatigue life of inner race
rstly slowly decreases; subsequently, it remarkably
reduces with the increase of inner groove curvature
radius under the dierent radial loads. When the
radial load is 6 kN, the fatigue life of inner race
decreases slowly with the increase of inner groove
curvature radius until the inner groove curvature
radius is 7.79 mm. Subsequently, the fatigue life of
inner race decreases sharply until material damage
occurs at the value of inner groove curvature radius
of 8.04 mm. When the radial load is 9 kN, the fatigue
life of inner race descends gradually with the increase
of inner groove curvature radius until the inner
groove curvature radius is 7.04 mm. Subsequently,
the fatigue life of inner race decreases sharply until
the material damage occurs at the value of inner
groove curvature radius of 7.30 mm. When the
radial load is 12 kN, the fatigue life of inner race descends gradually with the increase of inner groove
curvature radius until the inner groove curvature
radius is 6.8 mm. Subsequently, the fatigue life of
inner race decreases sharply until the material

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Stress amplitude Sa(MPa)

76

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

12

10

14

10

16

Fatigue life (2nf)

Figure 8. Stresslife curve of material bearing steel GCr15.

6.0

F a= 0KN

F a= 1.5KN

F a= 3KN

F a= 4.5KN

5.6

Outer race (Fa = 0KN)

Outer race (Fa = 1.5KN)

Outer race (Fa = 3KN)

Inner race (Fa = 0KN)

Inner race (Fa = 1.5KN)

7.0

F a= 6KN

Inner race (Fa = 3KN)

6.5
Fatigue life log10 (N)

Fatigue life log10(N)

6.4

5.2
4.8
4.4
4.0
4

10

11

12

6.0
5.5
5.0
4.5

Radial load F R [KN]

4

10

11

12

13

Radial load FR [KN]

Figure 9. Effect of axial load and radial load on the fatigue life
of inner race.

Figure 11. Comparison of the fatigue life of outer race with

that of inner race.

Radial load FR = 6KN

7.5

F a= 1.5kN

F a= 3KN

F a= 4.5KN
F a= 6KN
Fatigue life log10 (N)

Fatigue life log10(N)

7.0

Radial load FR = 9KN

F a= 0KN

6.5
6.0
5.5
5.0

Radial load FR =12KN

Radial load FR =15KN

5
4
3
2
1

4.5

4.0
4

10

11

12

Radial load FR [KN]

Figure 10. Effect of axial load and radial load on the fatigue
life of outer race.

1
6.4

6.6

6.8 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0 8.2

Outer raceway groove curvature radius re [mm]

8.4

Figure 12. Effect of outer groove curvature radius on the

fatigue life of outer race.

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6.4

Radial load FR = 6KN

Radial load FR = 9KN

Radial load FR =12KN

Radial load FR =15KN

Radial load F R = 6KN

Radial load F R = 12KN

7.0

6.2

Radial load FR = 9KN

Radial load FR = 15KN

Fatigue life log10(N)

Fatigue lifelog10 (N)

6.0
5.8
5.6
5.4
5.2
5.0

6.5

6.0

5.5

4.8
5.0

4.6
4.4

6.4
6.4

6.6

6.8

7.0

7.2

7.4

7.6

7.8

8.0

8.2

6.6

8.4

6.8 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0 8.2

Inner raceway groove curvature radius ri [mm]

8.4

Outer raceway groove curvature radius re [mm]

Figure 13. Effect of outer groove curvature radius on the

fatigue life of inner race.

Figure 15. Effect of inner groove curvature radius on the

fatigue life of outer race.

Radial load FR = 6KN

Radial load FR =12KN

Radial load FR =15KN

Fatigue life lg N

Fatigue life log10 (N)

Radial load FR = 9KN

4
3
2

5
4
Radial load FR = 6KN

Radial load FR = 9KN

Radial load FR =12KN

Radial load FR =15KN

0
0

1.8
6.4

6.6

6.8 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8.0 8.2

Inner raceway groove curvature radius ri [mm]

2.0

2.2

8.4

Figure 14. Effect of inner groove curvature radius on the

fatigue life of inner race.

damage occurs at the value of outer groove curvature

radius of 7.04 mm. By comparing the fatigue life curve
when radial load is 15 kN with that when radial load
is 12 kN, it is found that they have the same variation
rule and the inner race suers an overload failure
when the inner groove curvature radius increases to
7.04 mm. Therefore, it is concluded that inner groove
curvature radius and radial load have an important
inuence on the fatigue life of inner race. When the
radial load is small, the bigger the inner groove curvature radius is, the easier the overload failure of inner
race occurs. Conversely, when the radial load is large,
inner race can fail due to overload even if inner
groove curvature radius is small.
Figure 15 shows the eect of inner groove curvature radius on the fatigue life of outer race. From the
gure, it is found that the eect of inner groove curvature radius on the fatigue life of outer race ascends
gradually with the increase of the radial load.

2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4

Outer race thickness Te [mm]

3.6

3.8

Figure 16. Effect of thickness of outer race on the fatigue life

of outer race.

When the radial load is 6 kN, outer race does not

suer fatigue damage because of the small radial
load. Its fatigue life is in the innite life state. When
the radial load is 9 kN, the fatigue life of outer race is
in the nite life state and has no obvious change with
the increase of inner groove curvature radius. When
the radial load is 12 kN, the fatigue life of outer race
rstly slowly increases with the increase of inner
groove curvature radius until it increases to 6.8 mm.
Subsequently, the fatigue life of outer race tends to
become stable when the inner groove curvature radius
continues to increase. When the radial load is 15 kN,
the curve has the same variation with that when the
radial load is 12 kN. According to the analysis above,
it can be concluded that the fatigue life of outer race
has no obvious change with the increase of inner
groove curvature radius under the small radial load.
The fatigue life of outer race rstly increases gradually, subsequently tends to become stable with the

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Fatigue life log10(N)

Fatigue life log10 (N)

Radial load FR = 6KN

Radial load FR = 9KN

Radial load FR =12KN

Radial load FR =15KN

Radial load FR = 6KN

Radial load FR = 9KN

Radial load FR =12KN

Radial load FR =15KN

4
3
2
1

0
1.8

2.0

2.2

2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4

Outer race thickness Te [mm]

3.6

3.8

0
1.8

2.0

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3.0

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

Inner race thickness Ti [mm]

Figure 17. Effect of thickness of outer race on the fatigue life

of inner race.

increase of inner groove curvature radius under the

large radial load.

Effect of thicknesses of inner and outer races on the

fatigue life
Figure 16 shows the eect of thickness of outer race
on the fatigue life of outer race. As shown in the
gure, when radial load is 6 kN, the fatigue life of
outer race is in the innite fatigue life state and has
no obvious change with the variation of the thickness
of outer race. When the radial load is 9 kN, the fatigue
life of outer race enters the nite fatigue life state and
has no obvious change with the increase of the thickness of outer race. But, when the radial load is 12 kN,
the fatigue life of outer race increases slowly with the
increase of the thickness of outer race until it increases
to 2.5 mm. Subsequently, the fatigue life of outer race
tends to become stable when the thickness of outer
race continues to increase. When the radial load is
15 kN, outer race suers overload damage at the
value of the thickness of 2.0 mm. The fatigue life of
outer race increases gradually with the thickness of
outer race until the thickness is 3.0 mm.
Subsequently, the fatigue life of outer race tends to
become stable with the increase of the thickness of
outer race. According to the analysis above, it can
be concluded that the eect of thickness of outer
race on the fatigue life of outer race becomes obvious
with the increase of the radial load. In order to get a
stable fatigue life of outer race, the thickness of outer
race should increase with the increase of radial load.
Figure 17 shows the eect of thickness of outer race
on the fatigue life of inner race. It can be seen from
the gure that the eect of thickness of outer race on
the fatigue life of inner race becomes strong gradually
with the increase of radial load. When the radial load
is 6 kN, the fatigue life of inner race is in the nite life
region, and has no obvious change with the increase
of thickness of outer race. When radial load is 9 kN,
the fatigue life of inner race increases gradually with

Figure 18. Effect of thickness of inner race on the fatigue life

of inner race.

the thickness of outer race until the thickness of outer

race is 2.5 mm. Subsequently, the fatigue life of inner
race tends to become stable with the increase of thickness of outer race. By observing the two fatigue life
curves when radial load are 12 kN and 15 kN, respectively, it is found that inner race suers overload
damage when the thickness is 2.0 mm, and the two
fatigue curves ascend gradually with the increase of
thickness of outer race until the thickness of outer
race is 2.5 mm. Subsequently, they tend to become
stable when the thickness of outer race continues to
increase. Therefore, it can be concluded that the thickness of outer race has an important inuence on the
fatigue life of inner race when it is less than 2.5 mm.
Moreover, the radial load plays an important role in
the fatigue life of inner race when the thickness of
outer race is larger than 2.5 mm.
Figure 18 shows the eect of thickness of inner race
on the fatigue life of inner race. From the gure, it can
be seen that the eect of thickness of inner race on the
fatigue life of inner race becomes very obvious when
the radial load increases. When the radial load is
6 kN, the fatigue life of inner race has no obvious
change when the thickness of inner race increases.
When the radial load is 9 kN, inner race suers an
overload failure at the value of the thickness of
inner race of 2 mm. Subsequently, the fatigue life
of inner race increases with the increase of thickness
of inner race until the thickness is 2.5 mm. And then,
the fatigue life of inner race becomes stable when the
thickness continues to increase. When the radial load
is 12 kN, inner race suers overload damage when the
thickness of inner race is less than 2.5 mm, and then
the fatigue life of inner race increases with the increase
of thickness of inner race until the thickness is 3.0 mm.
Subsequently, the fatigue life of inner race has no
obvious change when the thickness is larger than
3.0 mm. When the radial load is 15 kN, the fatigue
life of inner race has the same variation rule with
that when the radial load is 12 kN. Therefore, the

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Deng et al.

79

Radial load FR = 6KN

Radial load FR = 9KN

Radial load FR = 12KN

7.0

Radial load FR = 15KN

Fatigue life log10 (N)

6.8

radius and thickness of outer race and inner race,

are varied to study the variation rule of the fatigue
lives of outer race and inner race.
The study results for the fatigue lives of outer race
and inner race are shown as follows.

6.6
6.4
6.2
6.0
5.8
5.6
5.4
1.8

2.0

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3.0

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

Inner race thickness Ti [mm]

Figure 19. Effect of thickness of inner race on the fatigue life

of outer race.

rational thickness of inner race should be selected to

ensure the stabilization of fatigue life of inner race
under the dierent radial loads.
Figure 19 shows the eect of thickness of inner
race on the fatigue life of outer race. From the
gure, it can be seen that the thickness of inner race
has an important inuence on the fatigue life of outer
race. When the radial load is 6 kN, the fatigue life
of outer race has no obvious change with the increase
of thickness of inner race. When the radial load is
9 kN, the fatigue life of outer race decreases gradually
with the increase of thickness of inner race until
the thickness of inner race is 3.0 mm. Equally, when
the radial load are 12 kN and 15 kN, respectively,
the fatigue life of outer race decreases gradually
with the increase of thickness of inner race.
Therefore, it is found that the fatigue life of outer
race has the reverse rule with that of inner race with
the increase of thickness of inner race. In addition, by
comparing Figure 18 with Figure 19, the fatigue life of
inner race always less than that of outer race with the
increase of thickness of inner race under the dierent
radial loads.

Conclusions
This article presents the 3D FE model of 6208 deep
groove ball bearing to evaluate the fatigue lives of
outer race and inner race. Firstly, the stress and
strain datasets of outer race and inner race are
obtained by the FE analysis. Then, the stress and
strain datasets are imported into the specialized fatigue analysis software to calculate the fatigue lives for
outer race and inner race. According to the high-cycle
fatigue law of BrownMiller strainlife equation with
Morrows mean stress correction, several parameters
such as load magnitude, raceway groove curvature

1. Larger the axial and radial loads are, the lower the
fatigue lives of inner race and outer race are, and
vice versa. In addition, the fatigue life of outer
race is always longer than that of inner race
under any combination of radial and axial loads.
2. Groove curvature radius and radial load have an
important inuence on the fatigue lives of outer
race and inner race. When the radial load is small,
the bigger the groove curvature radius is, the
easier the overload failures of outer and inner
races occur. Conversely, when the radial load is
large, outer race and inner race can fail due to
overload even if groove curvature radius is small.
3. The fatigue life of inner race increases gradually
with the increase of outer groove curvature radius
when it is less than 6.8 mm. There has no obvious
change for the fatigue life of inner race with the
increase of outer groove curvature radius when it
is larger than 6.8 mm. In addition, the fatigue life
of outer race has no obvious change with the
increase of inner groove curvature radius under
the small radial load. However, the fatigue life of
outer race rstly increases gradually, subsequently
tends to become stable with the increase of inner
groove curvature radius under the large radial
load.
4. The eect of thickness of outer race and inner race
on their fatigue lives becomes obvious with the
increase of the radial load. In order to get the
stable fatigue lives of outer race and inner race,
their thicknesses should increase with the increase
of the radial load.
5. The eect of thickness of outer race on the fatigue
life of inner race becomes strong gradually with
the increase of radial load. But, the fatigue life
of outer race decreases gradually with the increase
of thickness of inner race. In addition, the fatigue
life of inner race always less than that of outer race
under the dierent thicknesses of inner race and
outer race and the radial loads.
Funding
This research received funding from the National Basic
Research Program of China (No. 2011CB706605).

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Appendix 1
Validation of the FE model
In order to verify the validation of the FE model,
the contact stress distribution based on the FE
analysis was compared with that calculated from
the Hertzian theory. Figure 20 shows the comparison of contact stress distribution between the FE
analysis and the Hertzian theory on the inner raceway surface when the radial load is 6 kN. The
vertical axis indicates the contact stress on the contact area of inner race. The horizontal axis indicated the distance from the contact zone center to
the contact half-width a. From Figure 20, it can be
seen that the contact stress distribution is similar to
that the ideal distribution of the Hertzian theory.
The contact half-width of FE analysis is 2.45 mm
and the ideal half-width is 2.57 mm calculated from
the Hertzian theory. The both half-width is dierent because there is not a point contact between
the steel ball and the raceway surface but a contact
arc. The maximum contact stress calculated from
the FE analysis is bigger than the ideal value from
the Hertzian theory. This is because there is an
exterior tangency between the steel ball and the
raceway surface, which results in the reduction of
contact area with respect to the point contact.
Figure 21 illustrates the comparison of the maximum contact stress between the simulated result ( s)
and the ideal result ( h) from the Hertzian theory. The
variation of simulated result is in good agreement
with that of the theoretical value. The maximum relah
tive error (s 
 100%) is 14.9%. Therefore, the FE
s
analysis is proved to be reliable based on the comparison of contact stress between the FE analysis and the
Hertzian theory.

3.5
Nomalized contact stress x103 (MPa)

80

3.0

FE calculation

2.5
2.0

Hertzian theory

1.5
1.0
0.5
2.45

0.0
3

2
1
0
1
2
Distance from contact zone center x (mm)

2.57
3

Figure 20. Contact stress distribution on the inner raceway

surface.

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Deng et al.

81

9.0

Warhadpande and Sadeghi [19]

Harris and Barnsby [20]
Current model

8.5

3.9

8.0

simulated result
3.6

Fatigue life log10(N)

Maximum contact stress x103 (MPa)

4.2

3.3
3.0

Hertzian theory

2.7

7.5
7.0
6.5
6.0
5.5

2.4

5.0

10

12

14

16

Radial load FR (KN)

Figure 21. Comparison between simulated contact stress

and theoretical calculation value.

Appendix 2
Reliability of fatigue life
In order to verify the reliability of fatigue life based on
the fatigue law of BrownMiller strainlife equation
with Morrows mean stress correction, the simulated
results of inner race were compared with the
study results presented by Warhadpande et al.19 and
the experimental results collected by Harris
and Barnsby20 for AISI52100 cylindrical bearing.
Warhadpande and Sadeghi investigated the elasticplastic behavior of the bearing material (AISI52100

4.5
1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

Maximum contact stress x103 (MPa)

Figure 22. Comparison of study results.

steel) and evaluated the eect of contact stress on

fatigue life. The comparison of study results is
shown in Figure 22.
As shown in Figure 22, the results obtained from
the FE model for inner race correlate well with the
experimental results and those by Warhadpande
et al.19 The results also indicate that the fatigue lives
predicted by the FE model are not only closer to the
ones obtained by Harris and Barnsby20 but also have
a tendency of closing to the experiment data as the
contact stress reduces. Therefore, it can concluded
that the prediction of fatigue life is reliable based on
the fatigue law.

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