Abstract: According to the sleeve damage of oil-film bearing in 1580 PC hot strip rolling mill, during the process of setup, disassembly and usage, mechanic model on sleeve assembly by boundary element method (BEM), together with boundary conditions, is established. The deformation and load properties of oil-film bearing by interference fit between sleeve and rollneck in rolling mill are quantitatively analyzed by BEM for 3D elastic and plastic contact problems. The energetic parameters of different load models are set to simulate the setup and assembly processes. The influences of contact pressure and deformation on sleeve and rollneck, under partial loads on oil-film bearing, are discussed as well. Consequently, different expanding pressure, stress and strain varying distribution laws, under axial thrust load during setup and assembly process, are obtained. The fundamental reason that results in sleeve damage is found. Detailed improvement measures on damage depreciation are brought forward. Finally, reasonable experiments on two sample testing rolling mill, which are equipped with oil-film bearing, prove the validity of analytical results, and reasons that result in bearing damage are deduced from above analysis.

Key words: Boundary element method, Interference fit, Oil-film bearing, Sleeve damages