Forces exerted on support rollers?

iamasponge · Nov 3, 2010

A 49" dia. steel tube (shell) with a 6" x 57.5" dia. steel ring (Tire) welded to the tube rotates horizontally at ~ 27 RPM. Inside of the shell are 42 - 2.5"dia x 6' long solid steel rods. It is held at one end by a 5" dia. bearing mounted shaft, at the other end the Tire sits on 2 bearing mounted 14" dia. rollers. The shaft support and the support rollers are 78" appart(from center of bearing to center of roller). The total wieght of this unit is 10,000lbs. The support rollers sit at 36deg from vertical or 72deg from each other. Is the force required to rotate the entire unit increased or decreased if the rollers are moved closer together so they were say 60deg apart? I have attached a quick sketch for clarity.

CAD rendering of a horizontal rotating drum with a green shaft support bearing at the left end and two blue roller supports at the bottom right, with a dimension line labeled 78.00 across the top.

CAD drawing of a large steel shell viewed end-on, with two blue bearing-mounted support rollers beneath it, spaced about 72 degrees apart from the center.

I hope I didn't miss something. Any help would be really great guys...Thanks in advance.

iamasponge · Nov 8, 2010

Wow! I would have thought at least one of you "Master of statics" would have attempted to tackle this.

Forces exerted on support rollers?

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