Formation of a Needle-Like Structure when Surface Flaking Occurs During the Rolling Contact Fatigue of a GCr15 Bearing
Received date: 2023-01-01
Revised date: 2023-07-03
Online published: 2023-07-18
Supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China(52031013);Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDC04040203)
As a form of damage caused by rolling contact, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) can lead to early pitting and flaking on the raceway surface of bearings, which is frequently accompanied by the propagation and fracture of RCF cracks. When the RCF crack is initiated on the raceway surface, large amount of stress, e.g., fluid pressurization, may be exerted close to the crack faces, which can not only accelerate the crack growth and cause rapid failure of the bearing but also lead to local microstructural alternations in the bearing steel. In this study, a needle-like structure was observed close to the cracks with flaking occurring during RCF in a GCr15 rolling bearing. The microstructures of the needle-like structure were analyzed via SEM, transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD), and TEM to elucidate its microstructural constitutions and characteristics. Results illustrated that the needle-like structure is a thin plate in three dimension decorated with some microvoids and equiaxed ferrite nanocrystalline formed at the interfaces. The formation of the needle-like structure was attributed to the local stress exerted close to the crack surface during the RCF of the bearings. This structure may be a type of decayed microstructure of the martensitic matrix of the bearing steel. With the increasing RCF stress cycles, the microvoids in the needle-like structure may facilitate the initiation and propagation of surface cracks preferentially, thus accelerating the occurrence of surface fatigue flaking in the bearing.
CHENG Sheng , SUN Yang , ZHAO Wenhui , LUAN Yikun , ZHENG Chengwu , LI Dianzhong . Formation of a Needle-Like Structure when Surface Flaking Occurs During the Rolling Contact Fatigue of a GCr15 Bearing[J]. Acta Metall Sin, 2024 , 60(4) : 425 -433 . DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2023.00005
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