Development of white etching bands under accelerated rolling contact fatigue

Investigations of White Etching Crack (WEC) Formation under Rolling Contact Fatigue

A premature failure mode in steel rolling element bearings called white structure flaking (WSF) occurs in wind turbine gearbox bearings. WSF can occur in as little as 6-24 months of operation. WSF is associated with microstructural alterations called white etching area (WEA) and white etching cracks (WECs) that form in the ~1 mm zone beneath the contact surface. The tribological drivers for WSF...

Analysis of Surface Crack Growth under Rolling Contact Fatigue

Understanding the fatigue crack growth phenomenon in railheads requires a study of driving forces such as the crack tip opening and sliding displacements, under repeated rolling contact. Finite element simulations, allowing elastic-plastic deformation, and mixed-mode crack growth laws were utilized to demonstrate that the fatigue crack growth rates display a minimum after a finite amount of cra...

Soft novel form of white-etching matter and ductile failure of carbide-free bainitic steels under rolling contact stresses

There has been a great deal of work on the formation of hard white-etching regions in conventional bearing steels such as 1C-1.5Cr wt% when subjected repeatedly to rolling contact stresses. The regions are a consequence of localised mechanical attrition across microcrack faces and mixing, which refine the local structure and force cementite to dissolve. This white-etching matter is often associ...

Rolling Contact Fatigue in Ultra High Vacuum

Rolling contact fatigue of surface coatings—a review

The aim of this review is to survey the state of the art relating to the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) investigation of various overlay coatings and also, to ascertain the influence of design parameters such as the type of deposition process, coating material and thickness on the RCF performance. Rolling contact fatigue is a significant factor in the failure of components in rolling/sliding con...