A fretting related damage parameter for fretting fatigue life prediction

• We propose a damage parameter based on fatigue mechanism and experimental result.
• Tangential force caused by friction can be used to quantify the effect of fretting.
• The fatigue lives predicted by FRD parameter are highly agreed with the test data.
• The fretting related parameter is succinct and has a determinate physical meaning.
• The method can utilize plain fatigue result for fretting fatigue life prediction.

As the mechanism of fretting fatigue is very complex, there is not a satisfactory fretting fatigue damage criterion at present. In this paper, a fretting related damage (FRD) parameter was proposed based on fretting fatigue mechanism and experimental results. Analysis result proves that tangential force can be used to quantify the effect of fretting. The fatigue lives predicted by FRD parameter are in close agreement with the experimental data. This parameter is succinct and has a determinate physical meaning. The proposed method can make full use of the plain fatigue research results for fretting fatigue life prediction.