Improved rolling contact fatigue life for an ultrahigh-carbon steel with nanobainitic microstructure

In the present work, the influence of nanobainite on the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) performance of an ultrahigh-carbon steel has been studied. The results show that nanobainite can effectively improve the RCF life of the steel. In particular, the L10 life of specimens with 21 ± 1 vol.% nanobainite is approximately 3.3 times longer than that of specimens without nanobainite. The improvement in the RCF life of the steel is attributed to the nanobainite, which can delay the crack initiation and propagation.