Towards a grain-scale modeling of crack initiation in rolling contact fatigue – Part 1: Shear stress considerations

A numerical model for rolling contact fatigue has been developed using finite element method and the Tanaka-Mura micromechanical to calculate crack threshold. Two different approaches are compared: macroscopic modeling mesoscopic which considers a Voronoi polycrystalline geometry. Smooth dented surface contacts considered methods computing shear stress compared. It is shown that length scale consideration offers benefits over approach in case of meanwhile orthogonal computation on can legitimately be used Hertzian contact. The article also highlights allows life scatter Initiation depths consistent with literature experiments.