Htt. Huang et B. Ravani, CONTACT STRESS-ANALYSIS IN BALL SCREW MECHANISM USING THE TUBULAR MEDIAL AXIS REPRESENTATION OF CONTACTING SURFACES, Journal of mechnical design, 119(1), 1997, pp. 8-14
A simple method is presented for analysis of contact stresses and defo
rmation conditions between the bearing balls, screw, and nut of the ba
ll screw mechanism. The method is based on representation of contact g
eometry and curvature analysis of contacting surfaces using a generali
zation of the medial axis transform (MAT) to tubular surfaces. Simplif
ied Hertzian contact solutions are obtained using the curvature inform
ation. The results are approximate but do include the effect of comple
x thread profiles as a result of the helical grooves and are suitable
for mechanical design purposes.