Contact fatigue life prediction of rolling bearing considering machined surface integrity

Purpose Rolling bearings often cause engineering accidents due to early fatigue failure. The study of early fatigue failure mechanism and fatigue life prediction does not consider the integrity of the bearing surface. The purpose of this paper is to find new rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life model of rolling bearing. Design/methodology/approach An elastic-plastic finite element (FE) fatigue damage accumulation model based on continuous damage mechanics is established. Surface roughness, surface residual stress and surface hardness of bearing rollers are considered. The fatigue damage and cumulative plastic strain during RCF process are obtained. Mechanism of early fatigue failure of the bearing is studied. RCF life of the bearing under different surface roughness, hardness and residual stress is predicted. Findings To obtain a more accurate calculation result of bearing fatigue life, the bearing surface integrity parameters should be considered and the elastic-plastic FE fatigue damage accumulation model should be used. There exist the optimal surface parameters corresponding to the maximum RCF life. Originality/value The elastic-plastic FE fatigue damage accumulation model can be used to obtain the optimized surface integrity parameters in the design stage of bearing and is helpful for promote the development of RCF theory of rolling bearing.