Analysis of Residual Stresses Impact on Fatigue Life of Rolling Contacts

The values of residual stresses resulting from a heavily stressed contact are numerically evaluated by employing a three-dimensional strain deformation analysis model. The model is developed in the frame of the incremental theory of plasticity including the von Mises yield criterion, Prandtl-Reuss equations, and Ramberg-Osgood stress-strain equation. Two groups of cylindrical specimens were subjected to rolling contact fatigue, one as the reference group and the other with an induced residual stresses state. To obtain theoretical lives of the tested groups the von Mises equivalent stress is used in Ioannides-Harris rolling contact fatigue model. Both, the experimental data and theoretical analysis reveal more than two times greater fatigue life for the group with induced residual stresses versus the life of the reference group.