Crack initiation from micro surface holes in bearings under rolling contact fatigue

K. Kida*, T. Yamazaki, M. Shibata, N. Oguma, H. Harada

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Investigations concerning surface crack growth are necessary for understanding the mechanism of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) of bearings because the surface defects cause flaking failures. In the present work, micro holes were artificially made prior to the RCF tests and the initiation of the surface cracks from the micro holes was observed in order to find the key factors for understanding their features. Crack initiation directions were compared to the stress intensity factors calculated by a simple method based on the √area theory. The extent to which 'contact press (wedge effect)' and 'contact stresses' are applicable for understanding the correlations between the crack initiation directions and stress intensity factors is discussed. The crack initiation directions are strongly correlated to the stress intensity factors caused by the contact stresses alone. We concluded that the crack growth and initiation are dominated by stress intensity factors caused by contact stresses rather than the wedge effect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)481-493
Number of pages13
JournalFatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures
Volume27
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004/06

Keywords

  • Contact stress
  • Crack initiation
  • Micro surface crack
  • Rolling contact fatigue
  • Stress intensity factor
  • Wedge effect

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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