Fatigue Life Investigation of Solid and Hollow Rollers in Pure Rolling Contact

Two solid and hollow cylindrical rollers in pure rolling contact have been modeled. The two rollers are subjected to a combined normal and tangential loading. The Stress distribution in the contact zone has been determined using a finite element package called ABAQUS. Then fatigue life model for rolling bearings developed by Ioannides and Harris has been used to study the relative fatigue life of the hollow rollers compared to solid rollers. Different hollowness percentages have been investigated; 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%. Two cases were studied- when both rollers are hollow and when only one of them is hollow while the other one is solid. It has been found that making the rollers hollow will result in redistribution of stresses in the contact zone. That decreased the peak stress under the surface when compared to the solid cylinder. Hollow cylinders have more flexibility when subjected to normal and tangential loading. And so, the stresses are redistributed so that the fatigue life is improved. The best fatigue life improvements have been found when both cylinders have almost 60% hollowness.