Energy dissipation at rubbing crack faces in rolling contact fatigue as the mechanism of white etching area formation

Subsurface cracks decorated with white etching areas are one of the failure marks in bearings subjected to rolling contact fatigue. In the literature, multiple mechanisms were proposed to explain this phenomenon, one of which stated that the white etching matter formed around a subsurface crack is a symptom of crack faces rubbing which leads to local changes in the material microstructure. The current work presents a theoretical study on white etching area formation by the modelling of frictional interaction at crack faces in mode-II, caused by cyclic shearing and compression - the conditions typical for rolling contact. Based on energy considerations, the feasibility of white etching area formation along subsurface cracks in bearings is theoretically investigated.