| Abstract Scope |
Primary carbides have been shown to be the main type of defect in M50 bearing steels used in the aerospace industry. Therefore, they must be characterized under service conditions, and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) properties must be evaluated under different friction conditions. A method for analyzing the response of primary carbides is proposed; furthermore, the RCF process is separated into a plastic instability period and an elastic period. The accumulation of plastic deformation around the carbides before elastic deformation is proposed as the RCF damage parameter, and the influence of primary carbides is studied based on the damage criterion. A predictive model for RCF initiation is proposed, which could predict critical sizes for different types of primary carbides that are not detrimental to performance in industrial service. |