International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92

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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmecsci

Computational model for determination of static load capacity

of three-row roller slewing bearings with arbitrary clearances
and predefined raceway deformations
Peter Göncz a, Rok Potočnik b, Srečko Glodež a,n
a
University of Maribor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Smetanova 17, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia
b
Rotis d.o.o., Brodišče 5, SI-1236, Trzin, Slovenia

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A new computational model for determination of internal contact forces distribution and consequently
Received 8 January 2013 the determination of acceptable load curves for static load capacity in three-row roller slewing bearings
Received in revised form is presented in this paper. The proposed model considers some typical characteristics of large slewing
22 February 2013
bearings (possible structural ring deformations, non-parallel ring displacements, clearances, surface
Accepted 23 April 2013
quenching of the raceway raceways, etc.) and their influence on the bearing static capacity. For practical
Available online 7 May 2013
applicability of the model, vector approach is used for mathematical description of the bearing geometry
Keywords: and relative ring movements, together with the static force and moment equilibrium calculation. The
Slewing bearings model has been implemented into a computer code and it serves as a convenient engineering tool
Roller bearings
especially suitable for early stages of slewing bearings’ design.
Contact loading
The proposed computational model has been used to determine the static load capacity of an actual
Load capacity
three-row roller slewing bearing, where different geometric parameters, such as different predefined
ring deformations, rollers sizes, roller profile modifications and tilted contact of rollers have been
additionally analyzed. Computational analyses have shown that some of the investigated parameters
have a significant influence on the static load capacity of analyzed slewing bearing.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Slewing bearings are large rolling-element bearings used for
connecting different large structural parts, transmission of exter-
nal loads from one part of the structure to another and for
controlled relative rotation between them [1,2]. Beside the sup-
porting and upper structure, other main parts of the slewing
bearing assembly are the rings, rolling elements and pre-stressed
bolted joints (Fig. 1a). That kind of assembly can accommodate
three types of loads: axial force (Fext,z), overturning moment
(Mext,x/y) and radial force (Fext,x/y), from which the first two are
the main characteristic loads (Fig. 1b). Depending on their actual
application, slewing bearings are manufactured in different sizes,
types and configurations. However, a three-row roller slewing
bearings are usually used for highest loads at given dimensions.
They have three independent rows of rollers, two in axial direction
and one in radial direction. In most cases (supported installation),
the more heavily loaded row in the axial direction is the carrying
row (larger rollers)—axial force and overturning moment, while
the supporting row is usually loaded only because of the over-
turning moment.
One of the main design aspects of the rolling-element bearings
is their load carrying capacity. For smaller rolling-element bearings
some well-established international standards are used for both
static [3] and dynamic load capacity [4]. However, large slewing
bearings have some particularities, which make them different if
compared to the classical smaller rolling-elements bearings [5]:

relatively slender ring geometry, which cannot prevent the
structural deformation of bearing rings;

the dominant loading type is the overturning moment, which
causes a substantial non-parallel relative ring displacements;

different type of connection of the bearing rings to the remaining
structure;

clearances, which have a significant effect on the bearing
operation;

slewing bearing rings are usually produced by using different
manufacturing technology and different materials, which sig-
nificantly influences their mechanical characteristics.

n
Corresponding author. Tel.: +386 2 229 3752; fax: +386 2 251 8180. Several authors already addressed some of these problems in
E-mail address: srecko.glodez@uni-mb.si (S. Glodež). the past. Thus for example in recent publications in [6,7] an

0020-7403/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2013.04.012
 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92
Nomenclature
A [mm] raceway deformation amplitude
a, b [–] constants of exponential function
c [mm] axial bearing clearance
d [–] nominal roller/lamina diameter
D [mm] roller track diameter
E [MPa] Young's modulus
Fext, Fext[N] external force—vector form/scalar form
i [–] index of the roller row; 1-carrying row,
2-supporting row
j [–] index of the roller's circumferential position
k [–] index of the roller lamina
L [mm] nominal roller length
lt [mm] lamina thickness
lim [–] limiting value
max [–] maximum value
Mext, Mext [Nm] external moment—vector form/scalar form
n [–] number of roller laminas
N [–] number of rollers
P, P′ [–] contact point on movable raceway—initial/
transformed
pH [MPa] Hertz contact pressure
innovative and simple calculation model for determination of the
number of active rolling elements, which are participating in the
external load transfer in rolling-element bearings with arbitrary
radial clearance is described. However, this approach assumes a
perfect bearing geometry and only radial load is addressed.
In [8] an advanced calculation procedure is described, which
considers the influence of tilted and misaligned bearing rings in
rolling element bearings, which are subjected to radial loads with
consideration of radial clearance. For roller bearings, a lamina
model is applied to describe the misaligned rolling elements. Final
expressions are presented for single-row radial ball and roller
bearings.
In the papers focusing exclusively large slewing bearings, the
main research topic is, besides the empirical investigations and
computational analyses of the failure mechanisms, the determina-
tion of internal contact load distributions and determination of
load carrying capacity. In general, authors are presenting two
different approaches for solving these problems: an analytical
approach and a numerical approach, where the finite element
method (FEM) is usually used for that purpose. Thus, in [9] an
analytical calculation procedure for determination of the internal
load distribution in a four contact-point single row ball bearing in
presented. The presented model takes into consideration the
Fig. 1. Components of a three-row roller slewing bearing assembly (a); external loads acting on a three-row roller slewing bearing assembly (b).
83
Q, Q [N] internal contact force (roller–raceway)—vector
form/scalar form
q, q [N] internal contact force (roller lamina–raceway)—
vector form/scalar form
r [–] position vector of point
r [mm] roller end fillet
R [mm] roller profile radius
Rp0,2 [MPa] yield strength
S [–] contact point on fixed raceway
t [–] vector parameter
T [–] transformation matrix
u [–] unit vector of contact line
u, v, w [mm] translations along the coordinate axes
Ux, Uy, Uz [mm] displacements in FEM model
x, y, z [–] coordinate axes
x′, y′, z′ [–] transformed coordinate axes
α [rad] angle between raceways
δ [mm] contact deformation of roller lamina
ε [–] strain
ν [–] Poisson's ratio
s [MPa] stress
φ [rad] phase shift of the sine function
φx, φy, φz [rad] rotations around the coordinate axes
ψ [deg] angle of the roller's circumferential position
bearing's clearance, the non-parallel ring displacements and con-
tact deformations. In [10] the carrying capacity and service life for
the same bearing type is presented, where the influence of the
raceway geometry parameters (cross-section clearance, curvature
ratio, initial contact angles and ball diameters) is investigated. In
both studies the load carrying capacity criterion is defined with
maximum Hertz contact pressure. In [11] a calculation procedure
for static capacity load curve is shown for a three-row roller
slewing bearing loaded with an arbitrary combination of axial
force and overturning moment. In this procedure the acceptable
external load is determined by comparing the maximum internal
load of the roller on the inner ring with an axial load carrying
capacity of the bearing. Although the calculation model seems
straightforward and fairly simple, the authors themselves point
out that with this analytical approach the eventual bearing
clearances, misalignments and structural ring deformations can-
not be taken into consideration. In [12] authors extended their
model to the four contact-point single row ball slewing bearings
also including the parametric 3D FEM analyses. In the numerical
analyses the actual rollers and contact problems are replaced with
1D traction-only spring elements and rigid shell elements. A 3D
FEM analyses is also used in [13] to determine the internal contact
force distribution in a double-row ball slewing bearing of an
84 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92
excavator, where two different relative rotation angles between
the rings/companion structures were considered. The bearing is
modeled together with the superstructure and undercarriage
frame. The balls are modeled as superelements, while the bolted
connections are modeled as pre-stressed truss elements. The FEM
results are then compared to the available analytical results.
Another FEM based computational approach is described in [14],
where the bearing rings are modeled as 3D solid (global) model,
while the roller and contact between them and the raceway are
substituted with non-linear truss elements. The load-contact
deformation characteristics for different profile corrected rollers
were determined with a (local) 1/8th symmetry model of a roller-
raceway contact, where the static limiting load was calculated
according to the formulas taken from the literature. Further FEM
analyses were carried out by the same authors in [15], where the
computational model was also divided into global and local
models. The calculations were carried out with ideal ring and
roller shapes, identical roller diameters and identical raceway
hardnesses. In the FEM model, the rings were clamped to an
ideally rigid surface using pre-tensioned bolted joints. A significant
influence of the bearing clearance and structural ring deforma-
tions on the internal contact load distribution are pointed out in
this analysis.
In the framework of our research group a computational model
for determination of static and dynamic capacity of large single
row four contact-point ball bearings has been proposed [5], where
most of the main particularities of the slewing bearings have been
taken into account (structural deformation of raceways, clear-
ances, depth dependent mechanical properties, etc.). The max-
imum contact force acting between balls and bearing rings is
determined on the basis of static equilibrium between internal
contact forces and external loads acting on the bearing assembly,
where a vector approach has been used for that purpose. Further,
the model has been extended to eight contact-point double row
ball bearings [16], where the influence of different predefined
structural raceway deformations and bearing clearances on the
load distribution over the roller elements have been investigated.
Once again, the model employs vectors and matrices for describing
the bearing geometry instead of algebraic equations, which allows
it's modification to different bearing configurations and convenient
implementation into computer codes.
In the presented paper a new computational model for deter-
mination of internal contact forces distribution and consequently
the determination of static capacity load curves in three-row roller
slewing bearings is proposed. As the proposed model is based on
the approach previously published in [5,16], it can consider most
of the main particularities of large slewing bearings (structural
ring deformations, non-parallel ring displacements, clearances,
case hardened raceways, etc.) and their influence in wide extent.
Additionally, the proposed model is upgraded to take into con-
sideration the basic geometric characteristics of three-row roller
slewing bearings, such as different rollers sizes, roller profile
modifications and tilted contact of rollers. Using this computa-
tional model, different static load capacity criterions, clearances
and independent predefined structural ring deformations are
analyzed. The model is already implemented into a computer
code and it serves as a fast and convenient engineering tool in the
early stages of slewing bearings’ design.
2. Computational model
The presented computational model consists of two global
parts (Fig. 2). The main part is the iterative procedure for
determination of static equilibrium between the external loads
acting on the three-row roller slewing bearing assembly and
internal contact loads (roller–raceway). In this part, besides the
number, size and profile corrections of rollers, arbitrary predefined
structural raceway deformations, clearances and non-parallel ring
displacement are considered. Here, a vector description of bearing
geometry is used, as this enables a more general and convenient
approach, which can be easily implemented into computer soft-
ware solutions and can also be easily extended to other types of
bearings. The second part of the model is the parametric numer-
ical analyses for determination of static load capacity criterions of
the bearing raceway, where some significant influencing para-
meters as roller profile corrections, elasto-plastic material proper-
ties of a raceway and tilted roller contact loading are considered.
2.1. Determination of internal contact load distribution
of a three-row roller slewing bearings
The presented computational model is based on the following
assumptions:

The rings (raceways) are considered as rigid bodies; however,
arbitrary structural raceway deformations can be prescribed in
advance. This approach is convenient from the designer's and
manufacturer's point of view as they can determine the catalog
static load capacity of the bearing in advance taking into
account different permissible structural ring deformations
without detailed knowledge of the actual companion structures
[5]. Considering this assumption the internal contact forces are
determined on the basis of the local contact deformations
between rollers and raceway.

One of the bearing rings is considered as fixed, while the other
is movable and can be loaded with external axial force Fext and
overturning moment Mext (Fig. 1b). These external loads must
be in static equilibrium with internal contact loads. Although
three-row roller slewing bearings can also be loaded with some
radial forces—Fext,x/y (see Fig. 1b), they are usually small if
compared to axial forces and overturning moments and are not
considered in this paper. Furthermore, the movable ring is
presumed to rotate freely around the z-axis. Therefore, only
z-component of the external force Fext,z and x/y-components of
the external overturning moment Mext,x/y are considered in the
proposed computational model. In accordance with this the
movable ring has 3 degrees of freedom (DOF): translation in
z-direction (w) and rotations about x- and y-direction (φx, φy);
see Fig. 3a.

The internal contact forces from the carrying and supporting
row of the same bearing ring are opposite and are acting only
in z-direction.
The equilibrium of internal and external forces on the three-
row roller slewing bearing can be expressed as:
N1 N2
∑ Q 1;j þ ∑ Q 2;j þ F ext ¼ 0 ð1Þ
j¼1 j¼1
where Qi,j are the internal contact forces between the roller and
the raceway, N is the number of rollers in a treated row and Fext is
the external force. Here, index i¼1 is valid for the carrying row
and index i ¼2 for the supporting row.
To take into account the non-parallel relative ring displace-
ments and possible profile corrections of rollers, an advanced
connector model was used in the computational analyses, simi-
larly as explained in the lamina model for small radial bearings [8].
If compared to some numerical and analytical approaches
[11,14,15], where a single non-linear connectors are used for
simulating the contact behavior between rollers and raceway,
several non-linear connectors for each roller are used in the
 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92 85

Fig. 2. Algorithm for calculating static load capacity of a large three-row roller slewing bearing with arbitrary roller types, axial clearances and predefined ring deformations.

transformation matrix [5,16]:

2 3
cos φy sin φx sin φy cos φx sin φy u
6 0 cos φ − sin φx v7
6 x 7
T¼6 7 ð4Þ
4 − sin φy sin φx cos φy cos φx cos φy w5
0 0 0 1
With regard to small rotational angles (φx and φy) and just one
another DOF of the movable ring (translation in z-direction, see
Fig. 3a), the transformation matrix can be further simplified to:
2 3
1 φx φy φy 0
Fig. 3. Coordinate system and DOFs definitions of the movable ring (a); angular 6 0
position of rollers (b). 6 1 −φx 0 77
T≈6 7 ð5Þ
4 −φy φx 1 w5
proposed model (Fig. 4). Thus, the whole internal contact force 0 0 0 1
acting on one roller Qi,j is the sum of all lamina contact forces qi,j,k:
To calculate the internal contact force between the raceway and
n
Q i;j ¼ ∑ qi;j;k ð2Þ the given lamina of the roller (qi,j,k), the contact deformation
k¼1 of that given roller lamina (δi,j,k) must be known. Because only
z-component of the external force Fext is considered in the
where i is the index of the roller row (1-carrying row, 2-supporting
proposed model, it is presumed, that the roller lamina deforms
row), j is the index of the roller (Fig. 3b), k is the index of the roller
only in z-direction and the perpendicular distance (||Si,j,kP′i,j,k||,
lamina and n is the number of the laminas used for describing the
Fig. 4) between fixed and movable raceway must be calculated
roller (Fig. 4).
for every lamina. As the position vector of Pi,j,k is already known
As the whole bearing geometry is described in a vector format,
from the initial bearing geometry definition, one must calculate
every point P of the movable ring (raceway) with a position vector
the position vector of P′i,j,k using the following expression:
rP can be translated and rotated in 3D space as follows:
rP′ ¼ r C ′ þ t⋅uC′D′ ð6Þ
r P′ ¼ T⋅r P ð3Þ i;j;k i;j i;j

where rP is the initial position vector of given point (P), rP′ is the where r C ′ is the position vector of a reference point on the
i;j

translated and rotated position vector of that point (P′) and T is the movable raceway, uC′D′ is the unit vector of the contact line on
i;j
86 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92

Fig. 4. Lamina model of a roller: (a) unloaded condition and (b) loaded condition.

the movable raceway and t is the vector parameter which can be the equilibrium between the external and internal moments:
calculated as: N1 n1 N2 n2
uABi;j ⋅ðr Si;j;k −r C′i;j Þ ∑ ∑ ðr S 1;j;k  q1;j;k Þ þ ∑ ∑ ðr S2;j;k  q2;j;k Þ þ M ext ¼ 0 ð13Þ
t¼ ð7Þ j¼1k¼1 j¼1k¼1
uABi;j ⋅uC′D′i;j
where N is the number of rollers in the given row, n is the number
where uABi;j is the unit vector of the contact line on the fixed of laminas for rollers in this row, r Si;j;k is the position vector of the
raceway, r Si;j;k is the position vector of the contact point of given contact point for given lamina of the roller, qi;j;k is the internal
roller lamina on the fixed raceway and r C′i;j;k is the position vector contact force for given lamina of the roller and Mext is the external
of a reference point on the movable raceway. Unit vectors uABi;j and overturning moment acting on the movable ring. Index i¼1 stands
uC′D′i;j can be calculated as: for the carrying row and index i¼ 2 stands for the supporting row.
To solve Eqs. (1) and (13), 3 non-constrained DOFs (φx, φy and w)
r ABi;j r Bi;j −r Ai;j
uABi;j ¼ ¼ ð8Þ of the movable ring must be calculated iteratively. The presented
∥r ABi;j ∥ ∥r Bi;j −r Ai;j ∥
computational model has been implemented in a computer code
rCD′ rD′ −rC ′ written in Python programming language [17], where NumPy and
uC′D′ ¼ i;j
¼ i;j i;j
ð9Þ SciPy extension libraries [18] have been used for the vector and
i;j ∥rC′D′ ∥ ∥r D′ −rC ′ ∥ matrix operations together with the multidimensional root finding
i;j i;j i;j

where r ABi;j , r Bi;j rC ′ and r D′ are the position vectors of reference
i;j i;j
points on the fixed and movable raceway. Thus, the contact
deformation of roller lamina (δi,j,k) is:
δi;j;k ¼ di;j;k −∥Si;j;k P ′i;j;k ∥
where di,j,k is the roller lamina diameter and ||Si,j,kP′i,j,k|| is the
perpendicular distance between the contact points on raceways
(Fig. 4). If the calculated contact deformation of the given roller
lamina is equal or less than zero, the contact force for that lamina
is considered zero, and otherwise it is calculated according to
Eq. (11). The functional relationship between the lamina diameter
and thickness, its contact deformation between two raceways and
the belonging contact force was determined using 2D FEM
analyses, considering the actual elasto-plastic material parameters
of both the roller and the raceway, including case-hardened layer
of the raceway:
δi;j;k ≤0 - qz;i;j;k ¼ 0
2
δi;j;k 4 0 - qz;i;j;k ¼ lt ⋅ð7:17di;j;k −567:95di;j;k þ 42190Þ⋅δ1:154
i;j;k
where di,j,k is the diameter of the given roller lamina (considering
the possible roller profile correction), lt is the lamina thickness and
qz,i,j,k is the z-component of the contact force between that roller
lamina and the raceway. Additionally, the contact angle αi,j
between the fixed and movable raceway at the position of given
roller is calculated as the angle between the unit vectors of fixed
raceway uABi;j and the movable raceway uC′D′i;j :
αi;j ¼ cos −1 ðuABi;j ⋅uC′D′i;j Þ
The second condition for achieving static equilibrium between
the external and internal loads acting on the bearing raceways is
methods. The output data are presented in Microsoft Excel file using
the Xlwt extension library [19].
2.2. Determination of the static load criterion for the bearing
ð10Þ
raceway
Considering the standard ISO 76 [3], the criterion for the static
load capacity of roller slewing bearings is the permanent contact
deformation of rolling elements and raceways. As stated in this
standard, a permanent contact deformation of 0.0001 of the
rolling element diameter at the center of the most heavily loaded
rolling element can be tolerated in most applications. According to
the extensive testing, this permanent contact deformation occurs
at the contact pressure 4000 MPa in the middle of the contact
zone. However, contrary to the small and standardized rolling-
element bearings, different steels and manufacturing procedures
are usually used for large slewing bearings. As already discussed in
[5], the rolling elements are usually made of steel 100Cr6 and the
rings are usually made of steel 42CrMo4. However, the raceways of
bearing rings are thermally treated where induction hardening is
ð11Þ
usually used for that purpose. Because of that, the mechanical
properties of raceway are significantly different if compared to the
core material.
In this paper, a 3D FEM quarter symmetry model of a segment
of one roller–raceway contact (Fig. 5) is analyzed to determine the
static capacity criterion of the bearing's raceway. In [14] a similar
FEM model was used for determination of the load – contact
deformation characteristics of different types of rollers. However,
in that paper the possible non-parallel (tilted) loading of the
ð12Þ
rollers was not considered. As already discussed earlier, the
influence of non-parallel relative ring displacements combined with
the clearances on the static load capacity has been investigated in
 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92 87

Fig. 5. Quarter FEM model of the roller-raceway contact: (a) definition of the surface layers and (b) FEM mesh, loading and boundary conditions.

presented study. In general, the rings' material was defined as linear- Table 1
elastic (LE) with Young's modulus E¼207 GPa and Poison's ratio 0.3. Dimensions of the analyzed three-row roller slewing bearing.
However, in the regions of the highest loads the material of the
Dimension Row
raceway was modeled as elastic-plastic (EP). Under the contact
surface the material properties of the raceway are depth-
Carrying row Supporting row
dependent and were modeled with several layers of EP materials
(case, transition, core; Fig. 5a), each with the appropriate static Roller track diameter, D [mm] 1504 1496
strain-stress property in accordance with the previous hardness Nominal roller diameter, d [mm] 25 20
Nominal roller length, L [mm] 25 20
measurements [5]. In the numerical simulations normal contact
Number of rollers, N [–] 148 185
was defined between the roller and the raceway interface. Both, Roller profile [–] ‘ZB’ ‘ZB’
the roller and the raceway segment were meshed with 8-node brick Roller profile radius, R [mm] 300 475
elements with full integration.
The load (Q) at given tilt angles (α) on the roller (Fig. 5b) was
applied incrementally to determine the functional relationships
between load Q, maximum contact pressure (pH,max) and appro- 1850 MPa [21]. Taking these two material properties into
priate equivalent stress in the contact area of a raceway. Three account in an FEM elasto-plastic contact analysis it can be
different criterions have then been investigated to determine the shown, that in the case of large slewing bearing the permanent
static load capacity of the raceway: contact deformation of 0.0001  d is achieved exclusively by
the raceway plastic contact deformation while there is no

Tresca criterion: the static load capacity is achieved, when the plastic deformation on the roller. On that basis, it is presumed,
maximum Tresca equivalent stress in the raceway reaches the that the static load limit is achieved when a permanent contact
yield strength (Rp0.2) of the material. deformation of that amplitude is present in the raceway.

Misses criterion: the static load capacity is achieved, when the
maximum von Misses equivalent stress in the raceway reaches
the yield strength (Rp0.2) of the material. 3. Practical example

Criterion of permanent contact deformation: as pointed out in
Section 2.2, in standardized calculation procedure for small The presented computational model has been used to deter-
bearings [3] the limiting criterion for the static load capacity is mine the static load capacity of a three-row roller slewing bearing
the combined permanent contact deformation of the rolling (see Table 1) considering different axial clearances and different
element and raceway contact (0.0001  d), by which the share combinations of predefined structural raceway deformations.
of permanent contact deformation is virtually equal in the In the presented study, a partially crowned roller type (commonly
rolling element and raceway [20]. However, in the case of large referred to as ZB profile; see Fig. 6) was used, with a value of the
slewing bearings, there is a significant difference between the profile deviation 0.018 mm at 83% of roller length and roller end
hardness of the raceway (42CrMo4—approximately 56 HRC) fillet (r) according to [23].
and the hardness of the rolling elements (100Cr6–63 HRC) [21]. In the numerical simulation different material properties for
According to [22], the yield strength of 100Cr6 steel at 63 HRC several layers of the raceway (case, transition zone, and core),
is 2574 MPa, while the yield strength of 42CrMo4 at 56 HRC is previously determined using uniaxial static tensile tests [21], have
88 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92

been considered (see Fig. 7). The depth of the case-hardened layer following form (Fig. 8a):
of the raceway (Fig. 5a) was considered to be 10% of the rollers
zi ¼ zi;0 þ jAj sin ð2ðψ i −φÞÞ ð14Þ
diameter. This assumption is also in accordance with some
practical experiences given in [21]. where zi,0 is the nominal (non-deformed) z-coordinate of the
Although the presented computational model enables the raceway, A is the amplitude of the predefined raceway deforma-
definition of any predefined structural raceway deformation in tion, ψi is the circumferential angle position of the i-th roller
advance, a sine shaped deformation with 2 periods around the (Fig. 3b), φ is the phase shift of the sine function. By different
circumference of the bearing has been applied in the presented phase shift values of the sine function, relative ring rotations
study. This is also in accordance with the recommendation of one around the z-axis are modeled (Fig. 8b).
of the manufacturers for the allowable circumferential deflection
of the mounting structure [24]. According to this assumption, the
z-coordinate of the predefined deformed geometry of the given 4. Results and discussion
raceway at the position of the roller can be expressed in the
4.1. Static load capacity criterions

Fig. 9 shows the relationship between the contact force Q, the

maximum Hertz contact pressure pH,max and the maximum
equivalent stresses in the contact zone between rollers and race-
way (sTr,max and sMis,max) for two different contact angles α. The
maximum contact angle α¼ 0.0016 rad was chosen on the basis of
the typical slewing bearing geometry (track diameters, roller
diameters, clearances, etc.); while the actual contact angle for
every roller is calculated according to Eq. (12). The numerically
determined results (markers) are approximated with parametric
exponential functions according to Eq. (15) where the particular
constants of this function are presented in Table 2.

X ¼ a1 ⋅Q b1 ⋅ð1−625αÞ þ a2 ⋅Q b2 ⋅625α ð15Þ

Fig. 6. Partially crowned roller geometry (ZB profile).
Numerical analyses of the roller–raceway contact segment have
shown that at current depth of surface hardening the material
2500
yielding always appears in the case layer. As it is presented in [21]
the yield strength of treated steel 42CrMo4 in this layer is
2000 Rp0.2 ¼1850 MPa. Considering this value as a limiting value for
the static load capacity, the maximum Hertzian contact pressure
pH,max, at which yielding occurs as a consequence of the maximum
Stress - σ [MPa]

1500
equivalent stress in the case layer (pH,max ¼3330 MPa for Misses
criterion and pH,max ¼2960 MPa for Tresca criterions), has been
1000 determined.
"case" (56.0 HRC) As it is described in Section 3, the static load capacity can also
"transition-1" (48.8 HRC) be determined as a contact load Q when the permanent contact
500 "transition-2" (41.5 HRC)
deformation of the raceway reaches the critical value 0.0001  d,
"transition-3" (34.3 HRC)
where d is the nominal roller diameter. The contact loads Q at such
"core" (27.0 HRC)
0 contact deformations have been iteratively determined with FEM
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
simulations for different roller diameters d and contact angles α
Strain- ε [/]
(see Fig. 10a). Thus, the maximum Hertz contact pressure pH,max ¼
Fig. 7. Static stress–strain diagram for different layers of surface hardened raceway. 3640 MPa has been identified. According to the presented results,

Fig. 8. Formulation of predefined structural raceway deformation in z-direction (a) and investigated predefined raceway deformations (b).
 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92
Fig. 9. Max. equivalent stresses (Tresca sTr,max, Misses sMis,max) and max. Hertzian contact pressure (pH,max) in dependence of contact force Q and contact angle α. (a) Roller
diameter D¼ 20 mm and (b) roller diameter D ¼ 25 mm.
Table 2
Constants of the exponential parametric function.
Roller d ¼L ¼25 mm d ¼L ¼20 mm
diameter/
length
X a1 b1 a2 b2 a1 b1 a2
pH,max 21.489 0.4426 55.686 0.3625 29.585 0.4316 66.118 0.3615
sTr,max 21.732 0.3975 65.864 0.3021 33.031 0.3740 80.637 0.2947
sMis,max 23.545 0.3811 68.715 0.2894 32.314 0.3670 78.740 0.2877
the static load capacity criterions are practically independent of
the different roller diameters and contact angles. Additionally, in
Fig. 10b the Hertz contact pressure distribution (pH) between the
roller and the raceway is presented for the carrying row
(d ¼25 mm), according to all three load capacity criterions.
4.2. Static load capacity
The common way to present the static load capacity of large
slewing bearings is in 2D graphs, where abscissa axis represents
the external axial force Fext,z and ordinate axis represents the
external overturning moment Mext,x/y (see Figs. 11–14a). In pre-
sented study the static load capacity has been determined for
different predefined deformations of bearing rings. For each
studied case the internal contact force distribution along the
rolling elements is also presented (see Figs. 11–14b) at Fext,z ¼0,
i.e. pure overturning moment.
4.2.1. Both rings non-deformed
In this example 3 different static load capacity criterions were
considered. The raceways/rings were defined as non-deformed
and only the influence of different axial clearances of the bearing
on the static load capacity acceptance curves were investigated.
As expected, the Tresca criterion is the most conservative and the
permanent raceway contact deformation criterion allows the
highest external loads. The computational results in Fig. 11a also
indicate the negative influence of increased axial clearance on the
static load capacity.
89
4.2.2. One ring deformed, one ring non-deformed
In these cases, the combined influence of the axial clearance (c),
raceway deformation amplitude (A) and phase shift of the sine
deformation–relative ring rotation (φ) was investigated. Two differ-
b2 ent axial clearances (0.2 mm and 0.4 mm) were analyzed to compare
the influence of the same raceway deformation amplitudes (A). From
Figs. 12 and 13a it can be seen that at certain relative ring rotation
(φ¼3π/4) the acceptance curve shows higher load capacity at higher
axial load. This phenomenon can be explained with the fact that at
some combinations of relative ring rotations the supporting row
(d¼20 mm) is heavily loaded when the bearing is loaded only with
pure overturning moment, while maximum contact force in the
carrying row (d¼ 25 mm) is considerably under the static limit
(Figs. 12 and 13b). By increasing the axial load (Fext,z), the ratio of
the load level of the carrying and supporting row changes, allowing
higher overturning moments. However, as a general rule the combi-
nation of larger clearance and larger structural ring deformation
reduces the static load capacity of the bearing.
4.2.3. Both rings deformed
In this case both rings and consequently all four raceways were
defined as deformed. Because of that the relative ring rotations φ1
for fixed ring and the relative ring rotations φ2 for movable ring
with regard to the appropriate tilting moments are possible (see
Fig. 14a). When the relative ring rotations φ1 and φ2 are not
known, as there is sometimes difficult to observe them during the
bearing operation, one could consider the most unfavorable ring
positions as a reference value. When the relative ring rotation is
the same for both rings (φ1 ¼φ2), the load acceptance curve is
practically the same as in the case of two non-deformed rings at
given axial clearance (see Fig. 11a).
4.2.4. Discussion
− As shown, an axial bearing clearance (c) does not influence the
static load capacity when the bearing is loaded with a predomi-
nantly axial load (Mext,x-0), as only one row of rollers is loaded in
this case (Fig. 11a). In the case of large overturning moments
(Fext,z-0) both roller rows take part in the internal load transmis-
sion. Because of that, an increased bearing clearance (c) decreases
the number of active (loaded) rollers and subsequently the load
90 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92

Fig. 10. Permanent raceway deformation in y-direction at permanent contact deformation criterion (a), Hertzian contact pressure distribution at different static load capacity
criterions – carrying row (d ¼ 25 mm) (b).

Fig. 11. Static load capacity (a) and internal contact force distribution (b) for the case when both rings are non-deformed (1-Tresca criterion, 2-Misses criterion, 3-permanent
contact deformation criterion, c-axial clearance).

Fig. 12. Static load capacity (a) and internal contact force distribution (b) for the case of one deformed and one non-deformed ring with axial clearance c ¼0.2 mm
(1-raceway deformation amplitude A¼ 0.05 mm, 2-raceway deformation amplitude A ¼0.10 mm).
 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92 91

Fig. 13. Static load capacity (a) and internal contact force distribution (b) for the case of one deformed and one non-deformed ring with axial clearance c ¼0.4 mm
(1-raceway deformation amplitude A ¼0.05 mm, 2-raceway deformation amplitude A ¼0.10 mm).

Fig. 14. Static load capacity (a) and internal contact force distribution (b) for the case when both rings are deformed with axial clearance c ¼0.2 mm (1-raceway deformation
amplitude A ¼ 0.025 mm, 2-raceway deformation amplitude A ¼0.050 mm).

capacity of a bearing as a whole. This phenomenon should be
taken into consideration not only at the mounting of the bearing
but also later during the operation period, as an increase of the
axial bearing clearance can occur during the operation.
− The maximum contact force (Q), which determines the load
capacity, is influenced by the contact angle (Eq. (15)). Because
of that, a higher axial bearing clearance decreases the max-
imum allowable contact force on the roller (see Fig. 11b). This
effect can be more influential at other bearing geometries and
higher clearances, where the contact angles between the rollers
and the raceway are even higher.
− The increase of the axial bearing clearance together with the
structural deformation of at least one of the bearing rings in
axial direction in general significantly decreases the static load
capacity of the bearing (see Figs. 12 and 13). In cases, when
both bearing rings are deformed, this effect is even more
distinctive (see Fig. 14). Because of that it is critical to assure
a high structural stiffness of the companion structures to
reduce structural ring deformations. With the presented calcu-
lation method the manufacturers of large three-row roller
slewing bearings can define the allowable magnitude and
shape of the structural ring deformations in advance to assure
safe operation of the bearing at a given external loads.
− In the presented practical example rollers with ZB profile
correction were analyzed. Although this type of roller profile
considerably reduces the edge effect, some other roller types,
as the logarithmic, gives an even more uniform contact
pressure distribution [20]. In the future, the influence of other
roller types also should be investigated.
5. Conclusion
A new computational model for determination of the static load
capacity of large three-row roller slewing bearings is presented in
92 P. Göncz et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 73 (2013) 82–92
this paper. For the determination of the internal contact load
distribution an analytical model is applied, where vector approach
is used to describe the bearing geometry. Using the proposed
method, the most influential parameters, such as the structural
raceway/ring deformations, non-parallel ring displacements and
bearing clearances can be considered. Computational analyses have
shown that all of these parameters have a significant role when
determining the load capacity of large slewing bearings in general.
In the future the proposed model could be extended with the
following research work:
− Investigation of the influence of different roller profile correc-
tions together with different depths of case hardened layer of
the raceway on the static load capacity – optimization of large-
three row roller bearings design and manufacturing.
− Experimental validation of computational results, together
with a detailed validation of static load criterions.
− Extension of the presented model for other large roller slewing
bearings – crossed roller bearings.
− Influence of number and pretension level of bolted joints on
the ring deformations.
− Determination of dynamic load capacity criterions for these
bearings.
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