Contact Fatigue Tests and Life Simulations Using Computational Fracture Mechanics

Computational fracture mechanics based FATIG3D program was used to simulate contact fatigue life of rough surface contacts in boundary to mixed lubrication regimes. Two-rollers contact fatigue tests were conducted and test results were compared with calculated contact fatigue lives. Calculated contact fatigue life agreed with test results well with the selected set of input data. The effect of several important parameters in the input data on contact fatigue life was evaluated computationally using FATIG3D. These parameters include: oil pressure distribution, crack face friction, direction of friction, friction coefficient, initial crack length, Hertzian stress, and residual stress distributions. The results obtained in this work improved basic understanding and the application of FATIG3D in simulating contact fatigue behavior.