Contact Fatigue Behavior Evolution of 18CrNiMo7-6 Gear Steel Based on Surface Integrity

In this work, the surface integrity (surface morphology, microstructure, microhardness, residual stress) of contact fatigue (CF) samples with different numbers of running cycles was comprehensively studied. Based on typical working conditions, a fatigue life evaluation method was proposed based on the evolution law of surface integrity. The CF with different numbers of running cycles revealed that the average grain size decreased with the increase in the number of running cycles, and the surface microhardness, residual stress and surface roughness Ra increased first and then decreased. In addition, the relationships between different surface integrity parameters and fatigue life were plotted. Moreover, based on the fatigue life profiles, the running state and remaining life of gear samples can be evaluated.