The effects of hydrogen on microstructural change and surface originated flaking in rolling contact fatigue were investigated using JIS-SUJ2 bearing steel specimens charged with hydrogen. Under clean lubrication conditions, subsurface originated flaking occurred and the rolling contact fatigue life was reduced and the amounts of the microstructural change called white structure that formed in the specimens increased as the hydrogen content increased. The localized microstructural changes were found in the hydrogen-charged specimens by electron microscope observations. It is supposed that the localization of plasticity was enhanced by hydrogen during the process of rolling contact fatigue. Under contaminated lubrication conditions, which included debris in the lubricating oil, surface originated flaking occurred and the rolling contact fatigue life of the hydrogen-charged specimens became shorter than the uncharged specimens, although white structure was not observed around the flaking. Enhancement of fatigue crack formations due to hydrogen was observed in specimens with artificial dents. It is presumed that hydrogen facilitated the formation of fatigue cracks on the raceway surface.
Conventional life theory defines the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life as being determined by the maximum contact pressure (P) and the total number of stress cycles (N). However, when the life test results of bearings were analyzed, it was found that there were cases where there was little correlation between the RCF life, maximum contact pressure and the number of stress cycles. An extensive investigation has revealed that the slip velocity is an additional factor that influences the RCF life of bearings. Under special test conditions it was discovered that when the PV value, which is a product of contact pressure and slip velocity, was higher than the threshold value, a unique type of flaking occurred. The flaking originated from white microstructure that was generated at the point of the maximum PV value. Although regarded as a conventional means of increasing the maximum contact pressure, increasing the raceway curvature is an effective counter measure against the formation of white microstructure. It was also found that adding chromium to bearing material was an additional counter measure.
It is well known that microstructural changes occur in a steel bearing, when the bearing is operated under conditions involving high cyclic stresses. When combined with relatively high temperatures, such microstructural changes result in the flaking of the bearing raceway. In this paper, microstructural changes that occurred during rolling contact fatigue were investigated, and the relationship between these changes and fatigue life are discussed in association with the recrystallization behavior of martensite. Conventional bearing steel SUJ2 (SAE52100) was subjected to partial solution treatment at 1133K for 2.4ks followed by oil quenching. The quenched material with a martensitic structure was tempered at 443K for 7.2ks, and then subjected to rolling contact fatigue testing. The testing was performed at temperatures ranging from 373K to 443K and surface pressures of 4.6GPa or 5.5GPa. During testing at 373K, flaking occurred from the surface of the raceway due to non-metallic inclusion and without any marked microstructural changes. On the other hand, in the case of testing at 403K or more, flaking occurs after obvious microstructural changes. Firstly, dark etching constituent (DEC) formed around the area of maximum shear stress, which was followed by the formation of white etching constituent (WEC) within the DEC at 80 and 30 degrees to the rolling direction. TEM observations showed the change from martensite lath to dislocation cell structure within the DEC, and also the existence of fine ferrite grains of 20nm through 100nm within the WEC. Arrhenius plots for the fatigue life indicated that the activation energy of the fatigue process corresponded to that of carbon diffusion in bcc ferrite. These results suggest that rolling contact fatigue originated from the WEC is controlled by the diffusion of carbon in the ferrite matrix.
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