Fatigue crack nucleation and propagation at clustered metallic carbides in M50 bearing steel

This paper focuses on the crack nucleation and crack propagation induced by a cluster of carbides. The morphology of the carbides is extracted from scanning electron microscope images of M50 bearing steel. Subsequently, a continuum damage accumulation model is incorporated into the Voronoi finite el...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tribology international 2018-03, Vol.119, p.165-174
Main Authors: Guan, Jian, Wang, Liqin, Zhang, Zhiqiang, Shi, Xiujiang, Ma, Xinxin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bearing steels
Carbides
Coalescing
Coefficient of friction
Crack initiation
Crack nucleation
Crack propagation
Damage accumulation
Fatigue cracks
Fatigue failure
Finite element method
Fracture mechanics
M50 bearing steel
Metallic carbides
Microcracks
Nucleation
Tribology
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Summary:This paper focuses on the crack nucleation and crack propagation induced by a cluster of carbides. The morphology of the carbides is extracted from scanning electron microscope images of M50 bearing steel. Subsequently, a continuum damage accumulation model is incorporated into the Voronoi finite element model to investigate the damage evolution in the material. It can be observed that nearly all the micro-cracks nucleate on the boundary of the carbide and propagate through the bearing material matrix around those carbides until they become large enough to coalesce to failure. With the increasing of friction coefficient, cracks gradually grow to the contact surface. The result also shows that the carbides deeper than a certain depth are not harmful to the material. [Display omitted] •The morphology of the clustered carbides is extracted and finite element model is built.•The damage evolution of M50 bearing steel is studied under 4 lubrication conditions.•Higher friction coefficient causes fatigue cracks to extend to contact surface.•Carbides located deeper than a certain depth are not harmful to material.
ISSN:0301-679X
1879-2464
DOI:10.1016/j.triboint.2017.10.016