Machine designers increasingly rely on earlier and more predictively accurate simulations to accelerate product development, help eliminate errors and reduce the need for physical prototypes. In many mechanical systems, such as gearboxes or electric drivetrains, bearing performance is a critical driver of overall system performance.
However, the simulation of bearings is challenging since their behaviour depends on load characteristics and fine geometric details that are not readily available to designers or simulation teams. The new SKF Bearing App for the popular Ansys Mechanical Finite Element Analysis software is said to remove the need for engineers to rely on approximations or complex, unreliable models in their simulations.
Hedzer Tillema, product manager engineering software at SKF, said: “With this new integration, we are taking the burden of bearing simulation away from the user’s system and doing it ourselves. Our calculations consider the detailed contacts between the rolling elements and the raceways of the bearing, and full details of the micro-geometry.”
Mark Hindsbo, vice president & general manager at Ansys, said: “The partnership with SKF is a great example of empowering engineers to gain detailed insight into the performance of their designs early on.”
In the Ansys integration, the user can select their chosen bearing using a wizard. The app then communicates with a SKF cloud server to obtain a predictively accurate representation of the stiffness of a real bearing.
SKF cloud services are used to deliver predictively accurate information on bearing performance and stiffness to a range of engineering design tools. Customers can use these services to calculate key performance parameters such as bearing rating life, friction, grease life and relubrication intervals, static safety, and minimum load. In addition to the new Ansys integration, detailed bearing stiffness models are also available for the KissSoft and FVA Workbench analysis platforms.