A rolling contact fatigue health prediction model based on load interaction and damage energy accumulation

Rolling contact is one of the main contact modes of all kinds of mechanical equipment at present. This investigation studied the rolling contact fatigue behaviors under various slip ratios and surface roughness with the consideration of loading history, loading sequence, and mutual influence between different load levels. In this paper, a fatigue crack initiation life prediction model based on strain energy accumulation caused by slip dislocations is proposed. The effect of increasing slip dislocation density and friction resistance on strain energy accumulation under alternating load is studied. The experimental results show that compared with the existing models, the proposed model can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of contact fatigue life under variable stress loading.