The Influence of Heat Generation In the Contact Zone on Bearing Fatigue Behavior

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 462-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.-Ju¨rgen Bo¨hmer ◽  
Thomas Lo¨sche ◽  
Franz-Josef Ebert ◽  
Edgar Streit
Keyword(s):  
Heat Generation ◽  
Fatigue Behavior ◽  
Rolling Contact Fatigue ◽  
Contact Fatigue ◽  
Bearing Steel ◽  
Rolling Contact ◽  
Material Behavior ◽  
Damage Initiation ◽  
Operational Temperature ◽  
Higher Temperature

The material behavior of the standard bearing steel SAE 52100 and the heat resistant bearing steels M50, M50 NiL, and Cronidur 30 as a function of the operational temperature has been investigated. The reduction in rolling contact fatigue strength due to a temperature rise was found to be significantly higher than the reduction of hardness. The mechanism of heat generation due to the bearing operation induces a temperature distribution, which makes it necessary to distinguish between the temperature ruling the subsurface fatigue processes and a higher temperature dominating the surface originated damage initiation.

Influence of Residual Stress and Temperature on the Cyclic Hardening Response of M50 High-Strength Bearing Steel Subjected to Rolling Contact Fatigue

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abir Bhattacharyya ◽  
Ghatu Subhash ◽  
Nagaraj Arakere ◽  
Bryan D. Allison ◽  
Bryan McCoy
Keyword(s):  
Residual Stress ◽  
Compressive Residual Stress ◽  
Rolling Contact Fatigue ◽  
Contact Fatigue ◽  
High Strength ◽  
Cyclic Hardening ◽  
Bearing Steel ◽  
Rolling Contact ◽  
Indentation Hardness ◽  
Higher Temperature

Microstructural and mechanical characterization investigations on three variants of a through-hardened M50 bearing steel are presented to compare and contrast their performances under rolling contact fatigue (RCF) loading. Baseline (BL) variant of M50 steel bearing balls is subjected to: (i) a surface nitriding treatment and (ii) a surface mechanical processing treatment, to obtain distinct microstructures and mechanical properties. These balls are subjected to RCF loading for several hundred million cycles at two different test temperatures, and the subsequent changes in subsurface hardness and compressive stress–strain response are measured. It was found that the RCF-affected subsurface regions grow larger in size at higher temperature. Micro-indentation hardness measurements within the RCF-affected regions revealed an increase in hardness in all the three variants. The size of the RCF-affected region and intensity of hardening were the largest in the BL material and smallest in the mechanically processed (MP) material. Based on Goodman's diagram, it is shown that the compressive residual stress reduces the effective fully reversed alternating stress amplitude and thereby retards the initiation and evolution of subsurface plasticity within the material during RCF loading. It is quantitatively shown that high material hardness and compressive residual stress are greatly beneficial for enhancing the RCF life of bearings.

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