Peeling Damage Due to Rolling Contact Fatigue

Peeling, which is composed of crowded minute cracks similar to shallow flaking, is a kind of rolling fatigue phenomena caused by an interference with surface asperities of the partner rolling element or a dust contaminated lubricant.

In this paper, we describe experimental studies of peeling damage with metallic contact ratios defined by the electric resistance between the rolling elements, loading cycles and EHL film parameters. Damage leading to peeling failure starts to occur within 10 min of the loading cycle. Therefore, peeling grade after 4 h of running has a good correlation with the initial metallic contact ratio or EHL film parameter when compared to metallic contact ratio after 30 min.