Life prediction of fan bearings for traction motors of EMU based on RecurDyn

During the operation of the EMU, the traction motor generates a lot of heat. The traction motor fan was added to the bottom of the EMU to solve the heat dissipation problem of the traction motor. The bearing is one of the important parts of the traction motor fan, which is of great significance for the bearing life prediction. In this paper, the multi-body dynamics simulation analysis method was proposed. According to the actual working condition of the traction motor fan of the EMU, the mechanical model of the traction motor fan was established. The rigid-flexible multi-body dynamics simulation analysis of the traction motor fan bearing was completed by RecurDyn software. According to the results of dynamic simulation analysis, the fatigue life analysis module was used to predict the life of the finite element. The life prediction result was basically the same as the basic rated life of the bearing, indicating that the life prediction method was reasonable.