This simulator models a radial ball bearing's kinematics and basic fatigue-life rating — a rotating inner race carried by the shaft, a stationary outer race, rolling balls in a retaining cage, and an illustrative radial load-zone. Adjust shaft speed, load, dynamic rating, ball count, pitch diameter and ball diameter, and watch cage speed, ball-pass frequencies and L10 rating life develop.
• A real-time 3D cutaway workbench of the polished inner race and shaft journal, fixed outer race and housing, rolling balls with illustrative load-zone coloring, retaining cage, a radial loading yoke, and a removable shield with a lubrication fitting, with home view, focus-selected-part, full-enclosure/cutaway toggle, exploded view, auto-rotate, expand and show/hide labels controls. • An Equipment laboratory tab with a labeled parts index (inner, outer, balls, cage, load, seal, monitor) and click-to-inspect component callouts, plus a live illustrative rolling-element load-share chart (ball index vs. normalized contact-load share). • Fixture controls: inner-ring speed (0–3000 rpm), equivalent radial dynamic load P (0.2–5 kN), basic dynamic rating C (5–30 kN), rolling-element count (8 or 10 balls), ball pitch-circle diameter (45–65 mm) and ball diameter (8–12 mm). • Playback controls: pause/resume, 0.1 s and 1 s step, five speeds (100× and 10× slow motion, real time, 10× faster, 1 minute per second), plus start/stop quick actions. • A Curves & measurements tab with two live charts (cage speed and ball-spin speed; outer- and inner-race ball-pass frequency) plus the underlying model equations (cage/ball-spin kinematics, BPFO/BPFI, L10 rating life) and snapshot readouts for nine metrics including C/P ratio and L10 hours. • An Experiments tab with four guided fixtures (nominal radial bearing, double radial load, double shaft speed, more rolling elements) and a Model verification bench that runs independent deterministic checks against a fresh model without disturbing your live trial, plus a timestamped event log and a copyable trial report. • A Learn & assess tab with guided lessons, a knowledge-check quiz with reset, and a written model-scope statement with a referenced technical background link.
With a fixed outer ring and zero contact angle, the cage does not rotate at shaft speed — it follows ncage = nshaft·(1 − d/D)/2, where d is ball diameter and D is the pitch-circle diameter. Ball spin follows its own characteristic rate relative to the rotating cage. From cage speed and ball count Z, the simulator derives the outer-race ball-pass frequency (BPFO = Z·ncage/60) and inner-race ball-pass frequency (BPFI = Z·(nshaft − ncage)/60) — kinematic reference frequencies, not an automatically diagnosed fault condition.
Basic L10 rating life follows L10 = (C/P)³ million revolutions for ball bearings — doubling the load P drops L10 revolutions by a factor of eight, while doubling shaft speed leaves L10 revolutions unchanged but halves the equivalent L10 hours. L10 is a statistical fatigue-life rating for 90% survival of a population under the stated rating assumptions — not a guaranteed replacement time for any individual bearing.
This is an ideal radial ball-bearing kinematics model with a stationary outer ring and zero contact angle: no slip, clearance, preload, thermal growth or lubricant-film calculation is included. Load colors use a normalized vertical-share illustration rather than complete vector equilibrium or Hertz contact-stress analysis, and the user-selected dynamic rating C is a teaching value independent of the drawn geometry. At zero rpm, L10 hours are not applicable.
No. L10 is a statistical basic fatigue-life rating corresponding to 90% survival for a population of bearings under the stated rating assumptions. Real service life can be limited by other mechanisms such as lubrication, contamination or mounting, which this model excludes.
No. For a fixed outer ring and zero contact angle, cage speed follows ncage = nshaft·(1 − d/D)/2, where d is ball diameter and D is the pitch-circle diameter — generally slower than shaft speed, not equal to it.
Because L10 = (C/P)³ million revolutions, doubling the equivalent radial load P drops the L10 rating life by a factor of eight, while the kinematic frequencies (cage speed, ball-pass frequencies) stay unchanged since they depend on speed and geometry, not load.
No. Ball-pass frequencies are kinematic references, not an automatically diagnosed fault, and the model excludes slip, clearance, preload, thermal growth, lubricant-film behavior and Hertz contact-stress analysis. It should not be used to certify or diagnose a physical bearing installation.