An Engineering Model for Three-Dimensional Elastic-Plastic Rolling Contact Analyses

Fatigue life of heavily loaded rolling bearings is strongly dependent on elastic-plastic material properties. For bearing steels these elastic-plastic properties can be accurately obtained by performing monotonic or half-compressive tests. A three-dimensional strain deformation analysis based on the incremental theory of plasticity and the use of Prandtl-Reuss relations in conjunction with the von Mises yield criterion was developed in order to evaluate the permanent deformation in dry contacts loaded above the elastic limit in case of normal loading. The Ramberg-Osgood stress-strain relation for two martensitically hardened variants of SAE 52100 bearing steel considered the nonlinear kinematic and/or isotropic material behavior. Parameters describing the influence of retained austenite are modeled by using a nonlinear isotropic law. Pressure distribution and contact surface displacements during incremental loading are evaluated by using a conjugate gradient method and the internal stress field is derived by using the superposition principle. Further, a fast analysis of smooth surfaces in elastic-plastic static and rolling contact is developed based on analytical relations for the internal stress field. Cyclic evaluation of plastic strains and residual stresses is carried out until shakedown. In order to verify the theoretical model, rolling contact tests under high normal load were performed. Residual stresses and residual profiles measurements show excellent agreement between numerical and measured cyclic values.