Evaluation of rolling contact fatigue behaviour of bearing steel subjected to shot peening in a contaminated lubrication

Abstract

In this study, the effect of shot peening on rolling contact fatigue life of bearing steel was investigated under contaminated lubrication. Shot peening was carried out on bearing steel SUJ2 specimens. Peened specimens were polished to remove the dimples generated by shot peening. The distribution of Vickers hardness and residual stress of the specimens were measured before and after the shot peening. The resistance to indentations was compared by examining the profile of the Vickers indentations. Then, rolling contact fatigue tests were carried out under contaminated lubrication. The material hardness was improved up to about 100 HV on the surface to a depth of 300 μm, and compressive residual stress was generated up to 1546 MPa at a depth of 25 μm due to the shot peening. In addition to the width and the depth of the Vickers indentation, the ridge height which causes the stress concentration around the indentation, was reduced by 17% by the shot peening. The rolling contact fatigue life associated with a 50% reliability (L 50 ) was improved 62 % by the shot peening. However, the improvement of rolling contact fatigue life associated with a 90% reliability (L 10 ) was only 26 % because of the increase in dispersion of the fatigue lives due to surface cracks created by the shot peening. Based on the present result, the increase of surface hardness and generating the large compressive residual stress near the surface by shot peening was found to be effective in increasing the rolling contact fatigue life in contaminated lubrication.