Correlation of fretting fatigue experimental results using an asymptotic approach

Small refinements are made to the bounded asymptotic forms recently developed to encapsulate the state of slip and stress at the edges of incomplete contacts. They are then used to re-analyse several sets of publicly available fretting fatigue data. Several different combinations of the asymptotes are used and it is shown that two are viable and give big improvements upon stress-based criteria. These procedures provide a practical method for both designing against fretting fatigue and quantifying nucleation times when fretting is unavoidable.

► Refinement of asymptotic methods to be applied to incomplete contact problems.
► Application of asymptotic techniques to fretting fatigue life prediction.
► Derivation of fretting fatigue thresholds based on closed form asymptotic solutions.
► Correlation with a large database of existing experimental results.
► Links between the frictional energy dissipation and wear/surface damage.