Abstract
The presence of the recirculation channel of ball screws is often ignored in literature mathematical models since steady state analyses are usually performed. However, high-fidelity dynamic models of these components should include it to correctly represent the motion of the spheres. This would allow to enhance the model realism and to use it as a virtual test bench, also for PHM purposes. This paper presents a detailed three-dimensional multibody model developed in the MSC ADAMS environment in order to exploit its capabilities to represent a contact between generic arbitrary shaped bodies, such as the recirculating channel and deflector. Consequently, no ideal constraints are arbitrarily imposed and the full dynamics of every component is fully described. A first model validation is performed extracting the ball passing frequency from the nut axial acceleration signal. Furthermore, the dependence of the load distribution on geometric errors and external force application point eccentricity is investigated.
