Hysteretic Resonances and Intermittency Chaos in Ball Bearings

Ball bearings are essential parts of mechanical systems to support the rotors or constitute the revolute joints. The time-varying compliance (VC), bearing clearance and the Hertzian contact between the rolling elements and raceways are three fundamental nonlinear factors in a ball bearing, hence the ball bearing can be considered as a nonlinear system. The hysteresis and jumps induced by the nonlinearities of rolling bearings are typical phenomena of nonlinear vibrations in the rolling bearing-rotor systems. And the corresponding hysteretic impacts have direct effects on the cleavage derivative and fatigue life of the system components. Therefore, the behaviors of hysteresis and jumps are given full attentions and continued studies in the theoretical and engineering fields. Besides, many researchers have done a lot of calculations to depict the various characteristics of bifurcations and chaos in the rolling bearings and their rotor systems, but few researches have been addressed on the inherent mechanism of the typical intermittency vibrations in rolling bearings. With the aid of the HB-AFT (the harmonic balance method and the alternating frequency/time domain technique) method and Floquet theory, this paper will investigate deeply the resonant hysteresis and intermittency chaos in ball bearings.