Simulative investigation of rubber damper elements for planetary touch-down bearings

Designing touch-down bearings (TDB) for outer rotor flywheels operated under high vacuum conditions constitutes a challenging task. Due to their large diameters, conventional TDB cannot suited well, and a planetary design is applied, consisting of a number of small rolling elements distributed around the stator. Since the amplitude of the peak loads during a drop-down lies close to the static load rating of the bearings, it is expected that their service life can be increased by reducing the maximum forces. Therefore, this paper investigates the influence of elastomer rings around the outer rings in the TDB using simulations. For this purpose, the structure and the models used for contact force calculation in the ANEAS simulation software are presented, especially the modelling of the elastomers. Based on the requirements for a TDB in a flywheel application, three different elastomers (FKM, VMQ, EPDM) are selected for the investigation. The results of the simulations show that stiffness and the type of material strongly influence the maximum force. The best results are obtained using FKM, leading to a reduction of the force amplitude in a wide stiffness range.