A Coupled Multibody Finite Element Model for Investigating Effects of Surface Defects on Rolling Contact Fatigue

A coupled multibody elastic–plastic finite element (FE) model was developed to investigate the effects of surface defects, such as dents on rolling contact fatigue (RCF). The coupled Voronoi FE model was used to determine the contact pressure acting over the surface defect, internal stresses, damage, etc. In order to determine the shape of a dent and material pile up during the over rolling process, a rigid indenter was pressed against an elastic plastic semi-infinite domain. Continuum damage mechanics (CDM) was used to account for material degradation during RCF. Using CDM, spall initiation and propagation in a line contact was modeled and investigated. A parametric study using the model was performed to examine the effects of dent sharpness, pile up ratio, and applied load on the spall formation and fatigue life. The spall patterns were found to be consistent with experimental observations from the open literature. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the dent shape and sharpness had a significant effect on pressure and thus fatigue life. Higher dent sharpness ratios significantly reduced the fatigue life.

[1]  R. L. Widner,et al.  Propagation of Contact Fatigue From Surface and Subsurface Origins , 1966 .

[2]  T. A. Harris,et al.  Rolling Bearing Analysis , 1967 .

[3]  W. Littmann.  The Mechanism of Contact Fatigue , 1970 .

[4]  T. E. Tallian.  Prediction of Rolling Contact Fatigue Life in Contaminated Lubricant: Part II—Experimental , 1976 .

[5]  B. Fitzsimmons,et al.  Contaminated Lubricants and Tapered Roller Bearing Wear , 1977 .

[6]  S. H. Loewenthal,et al.  Filtration effects on ball bearing life and condition in a contaminated lubricant , 1979 .

[7]  W. M. Needelman,et al.  Effects of Ultra-Clean and Centrifugal Filtration on Rolling-Element Bearing Life , 1982 .

[8]  T. A. Harris,et al.  A New Fatigue Life Model for Rolling Bearings , 1985 .

[9]  H. Lorösch.  Research on longer life for rolling-element bearings , 1985 .

[10]  J. Chaboche.  Continuum Damage Mechanics: Part II—Damage Growth, Crack Initiation, and Crack Growth , 1988 .

[11]  R. S. Sayles,et al.  Debris Damage in Rolling Bearings and Its Effects on Fatigue Life , 1988 .

[12]  J. C. Hamer,et al.  Particle Deformation and Counterface Damage When Relatively Soft Particles are Squashed Between Hard Anvils , 1989 .

[13]  K. Johnson,et al.  The influence of strain hardening on cumulative plastic deformation in rolling and sliding line contact , 1989 .

[14]  E. loannides,et al.  Debris denting-The associated residual stresses and their effect on the fatigue life of rolling bearing: An FEM analysis , 1989 .

[15]  K. Johnson.  The Mechanics of Plastic Deformation of Surface and Subsurface Layers in Rolling And Sliding Contact , 1991 .

[16]  T. Mura,et al.  A Theory of Fatigue Crack Initiation in Solids , 1990 .

[17]  Atsuyuki Okabe,et al.  Spatial Tessellations: Concepts and Applications of Voronoi Diagrams , 1992, Wiley Series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics.

[18]  Rob Dwyer-Joyce,et al.  Paper IV (iii) Analysis of the Influence of Indentations on Contact Life , 1992 .

[19]  T. E. Tallian,et al.  Failure atlas for Hertz contact machine elements , 1992 .

[20]  E. Ioannides,et al.  Cleanliness and its importance to bearing performance , 1993 .

[21]  Herbert S. Cheng,et al.  Micromechanics Modeling of Crack Initiation Under Contact Fatigue , 1994 .

[22]  Xiaolan Ai,et al.  The influence of moving dent on point EHL contacts , 1994 .

[23]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Spall initiation and propagation due to debris denting , 1996 .

[24]  X. Ai,et al.  Effect of Slide-to-Roll Ratio on Interior Stresses Around a Dent in EHL Contacts , 1996 .

[25]  J. D. Cogdell,et al.  Debris Denting Effects on Elastohydrodynamic Lubricated Contacts , 1997 .

[26]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Dent Initiated Spall Formation in EHL Rolling/Sliding Contact , 1998 .

[27]  Shusuo Li,et al.  A continuum damage mechanics model for high cycle fatigue , 1998 .

[28]  F. Leckie.  A course on damage mechanics , 1998 .

[29]  F. Ville,et al.  An Experimental Study on the Concentration and Shape of Dents Caused by Spherical Metallic Particles in EHL Contacts , 1999 .

[30]  A. Mihailidis,et al.  Calculation of friction coefficient and temperature field of line contacts lubricated with a non-Newtonian fluid , 1999 .

[31]  J. Beynon,et al.  Effects of surface defects on rolling contact fatigue of 60/40 brass , 1999 .

[32]  T. A. Harris,et al.  Lundberg-Palmgren Fatigue Theory: Considerations of Failure Stress and Stressed Volume , 1999 .

[33]  F. Ville,et al.  Detrimental Effects of Debris Dents on Rolling Contact Fatigue , 2000 .

[34]  Xiaolan Ai,et al.  Fatigue Life Reduction of Roller Bearings Due to Debris Denting: Part I — Theoretical Modeling , 2000 .

[35]  Fabrice Ville,et al.  An abacus for predicting the rolling contact fatigue life reduction due to debris dents , 2001 .

[36]  X Ai,et al.  Effect of debris contamination on the fatigue life of roller bearings , 2001 .

[37]  A. Lubrecht,et al.  Pressure profiles measured within lubricated contacts in presence of dented surfaces. Comparison with numerical models , 2002 .

[38]  Xing Zhang,et al.  Fatigue life prediction of 3-D problems by damage mechanics with two-block loading , 2002 .

[39]  D. Nélias,et al.  New methodology to evaluate the rolling contact fatigue performance of bearing steels with surface dents : Application to 32CrMoV13 (nitrided) and M50 steels , 2003 .

[40]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  A Finite Element Model for Spherical Debris Denting in Heavily Loaded Contacts , 2004 .

[41]  G. T. Hahn,et al.  The Effect of Dent Size on the Pressure Distribution and Failure Location in Dry Point Frictionless Rolling Contacts , 2004 .

[42]  The influence of material build up around artificial defects on rolling contact fatigue life and failure mechanism , 2006 .

[43]  G. Nikas.  A mechanistic model of spherical particle entrapment in elliptical contacts , 2006 .

[44]  P. Moreira,et al.  A study on the effects of dented surfaces on rolling contact fatigue , 2008 .

[45]  A. Lubrecht,et al.  Contact pressure in indented elastohydrodynamic lubrication contacts , 2008 .

[46]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  A Statistical Damage Mechanics Model for Subsurface Initiated Spalling in Rolling Contacts , 2008 .

[47]  T. Ueda,et al.  Mechanism of dent initiated flaking and bearing life enhancement technology under contaminated lubrication condition: Part I: Effect of tangential force on dent initiated flaking , 2008 .

[48]  Shigeo Shimizu,et al.  Probabilistic Stress-Life (P-S-N) Study on Bearing Steel Using Alternating Torsion Life Test , 2009 .

[49]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  A new finite element fatigue modeling approach for life scatter in tensile steel specimens , 2010 .

[50]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  A Voronoi FE Fatigue Damage Model for Life Scatter in Rolling Contacts , 2010 .

[51]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  An Approach for Modeling Material Grain Structure in Investigations of Hertzian Subsurface Stresses and Rolling Contact Fatigue , 2010 .

[52]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Effects of surface defects on rolling contact fatigue of heavily loaded lubricated contacts , 2010 .

[53]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Cohesive zone modeling of intergranular fatigue damage in rolling contacts , 2011 .

[54]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Effects of plasticity on subsurface initiated spalling in rolling contact fatigue , 2012 .

[55]  L. Houpert,et al.  Contact stress and rolling contact fatigue of indented contacts: Part I, numerical analysis , 2013 .

[56]  Benjamin D. Leonard,et al.  A stress based damage mechanics model to simulate fretting wear of Hertzian line contact in partial slip , 2013 .

[57]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Numerical modeling of sub-surface initiated spalling in rolling contacts , 2013 .

[58]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  An Improved Approach for 3D Rolling Contact Fatigue Simulations with Microstructure Topology , 2013 .

[59]  Bomidi John Abhishek Raj,et al.  Three-Dimensional Finite Element Elastic–Plastic Model for Subsurface Initiated Spalling in Rolling Contacts , 2014 .

[60]  Y. Fukushima,et al.  Effect of Size and Depth of Small Defect on the Rolling Contact Fatigue Strength of Bearing Steel JIS-SUJ2☆ , 2014 .

[61]  M. Elahinia,et al.  Finite Element Modeling of Selective Laser Melting 316L Stainless Steel Parts for Evaluating the Mechanical Properties , 2016 .

[62]  M. Elahinia,et al.  Effect of manufacturing parameters on mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel parts fabricated by selective laser melting: A computational framework , 2016 .

[63]  Y. Nakai,et al.  Effect of defect shape on rolling contact fatigue crack initiation and propagation in high strength steel , 2016 .

[64]  Arman Ahmadi.  A Micromechanical-based Computational Framework for Modeling the Mechanical Properties of the Metallic Parts Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting , 2016 .

[65]  Y. Kadin,et al.  An experimental and theoretical study of surface rolling contact fatigue damage progression in hybrid bearings with artificial dents , 2016 .

[66]  F. Sadeghi,et al.  Rolling contact fatigue of case carburized steels , 2017 .