An approach to investigating subsurface fatigue in a rolling/sliding contact

This paper presents an approach to studying subsurface fatigue failures in a rolling/sliding contact with a twin-disc test device. A series of surface hardened test discs were tested with different load levels. A destructive inspection method was utilised showing subsurface cracks beneath the surface after a large number of load cycles with high loading. In addition, an elastoplastic finite element model considering the effects of increased hardness and residual stresses was created. The calculated results showed critical locations in the discs beneath the surface, which coincided with the experimentally found.