Best Practice Ball Bearing

In place of RBE3 constraint, in CalculiX, you could use distributing coupling constraints - not yet supported in PrePoMax but can be added via the keyword editor: RBE3 integration in PrepoMax (Kinematic & Distributing Coupling)

Two-node springs may also be added this way: Spring between two nodes

CalculiX offers also kinematic coupling constraints (closest equivalent to RBE2) and rigid body constraints (those are available in PrePoMax but they make the surfaces completely rigid).

I have a few papers about simplified modeling of bearings in Abaqus but they discuss roller bearings.

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