Single-Ball Rolling Contact Fatigue of 13Cr-2Ni-2Mo Stainless Steels Quenched by Induction Heating Method

Rolling contact fatigue tests of 20mm-diameter 13Cr-2Ni-2Mo stainless steel bars was carried out using a newly developed single-ball system. The bars were quenched by induction heating method and after that tempered. Sectional observations of the subsurface cracks were made after the surface layer separations. Based on the observations, stress analysis was performed in order to investigate the relation between flaking failures and subsurface crack growth. From these calculations it was found that the shear stress propagated subsurface cracks and finally caused the flaking failures. Furthermore, eight specimens were fatigue tested and Weibull statics distribution of RCF life were calculated using Johnson's statistical method. It was found that the basic life (L10) of the bars under 5.3GPa Hertzian stress was 8.33×106 cycles.