A comparison of the different lubrication characteristics of cylindrical roller bearings between single bearing system and tester system

The lubrication performance of cylindrical roller bearings is directly linked to their operational accuracy and lifespan. Therefore, experimental testing is essential before deployment. However, lubrication analysis is often carried out on individual cylindrical roller bearings, ignoring the effect of the tester. Therefore, based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a simulation model for oil jet lubrication of cylindrical roller bearings is established in single bearing system and tester system. The effects of different oil supply speeds, rotational speeds, and radial loads on the lubrication characteristics of bearings in the two systems are investigated in this paper. The accuracy of the simulation method is verified by comparison to the experiment. The research shows that when the oil supply speed increases, the average oil volume fraction inside the bearings in the tester system is higher than that in the single bearing system. The bearing temperature shows a linear decrease in the two systems. As the speed increases, the decreasing trend of the average oil volume fraction in the tester system differs from that in the single bearing system. The bearing temperature rises and exceeds that of the single bearing system. When the load increases, the temperature rise of the cylindrical roller bearings in the tester system is greater than that in the single bearing system.