Go-Kart Front Wheel Bearing Failure Analysis and Lap Limit Calculation

Assignment Task

 A go kart with front wheel brakes has a stub-axle (fixed) that attaches the front wheels and brakes to the go kart via two bearings, as illustrated by the schematic in Figure 2. The race-ready go kart weighs 80kg and the driver weighs 75kg with all necessary driver safety equipment.

The front wheels have a rolling diameter of 270mm, where the tyres have a braking friction coefficient of 1.8 and a cornering friction coefficient of 1.6. Notably the centre of the tyre contact patch is 20mm from the nearest bearing (see Figure 2). The bearing spacing is 75mm.

The go kart typically drives around tracks with a 2km lap length, where the tracks can be divided into three segments; namely 50% straights, 35% corners and 15% braking zones. Assume there is equal weight distribution across all four wheels and there is no weight transfer during driving.

The inner bearing (A) is SKF 61905 and the outer bearing (B) is SKF W 61905 deep groove ball bearings. With a confidence of 99.9%, calculate the number of laps the go-kart can complete until bearing failure (and specify which bearing fails), where the average speed during straights is 90kmh, corners 50kmh and braking 70kmh. Due to impacts with kerbs and competitor, the application factor during straights, corners and braking is 1.1, 1.4 and 1.2, respectively.

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