The influence of slide–roll ratio on the extent of micropitting damage in rolling–sliding contacts pertinent to gear applications
File(s)
Author(s)
Rycerz, Pawel
Kadiric, Amir
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Micropitting is a type of surface damage that occurs in rolling–sliding contacts operating under thin oil film, mixed lubrication conditions, such as those formed between meshing gear teeth. Like the more widely studied pitting damage, micropitting is caused by the general mechanism of rolling contact fatigue but, in contrast to pitting, it manifests itself through the formation of micropits on the local, roughness asperity level. Despite the fact that micropitting is increasingly becoming a major mode of gear failure, the relevant mechanisms are poorly understood and there are currently no established design criteria to assess the risk of micropitting occurrence in gears or other applications. This paper provides new understanding of the tribological mechanisms that drive the occurrence of micropitting damage and serves to inform the ongoing discussions on suitable design criteria in relation to the influence of contact slide–roll ratio (SRR) on micropitting. A triple-disc rolling contact fatigue rig is used to experimentally study the influence of the magnitude and direction of SRR on the progression of micropitting damage in samples made of case-carburised gear steel. The test conditions are closely controlled to isolate the influence of the variable of interest. In particular, any variation in bulk heating at different SRRs is eliminated so that tests are conducted at the same film thickness for all SRRs. The results show that increasing the magnitude of SRR increases the level of micropitting damage and that negative SRRs (i.e. the component where damage is being accumulated is slower) produce more micropitting than the equivalent positive SRRs. Measurements of elastohydrodynamic film thickness show that in the absence of bulk heating, increasing SRR does not cause a reduction in EHL film thickness and therefore this cannot be the reason for the increased micropitting at higher SRRs. Instead, we show that the main mechanism by which increase in SRR promotes micropitting is by increasing the number of micro-contact stress cycles experienced by roughness asperities during their passage through the rolling–sliding contact. Therefore, the asperity stress history should form the basis of any potential design criterion against micropitting.
Date Issued
2019-06-01
Date Acceptance
2019-04-23
Citation
Tribology Letters, 2019, 67 (2), pp.1-20
ISSN
1023-8883
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
1
End Page
20
Journal / Book Title
Tribology Letters
Volume
67
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s). Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
License URL
Sponsor
SKF (UK) Ltd
Identifier
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11249-019-1174-7
Grant Number
n/a
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Chemical
Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering
Micropitting
Gears
Rolling contact fatigue
Stress history
Slide-roll ratio
LAYER IMAGING METHOD
FATIGUE
SURFACE
MODEL
PREDICTION
MECHANISM
FRICTION
BEHAVIOR
CRACKS
LIFE
Mechanical Engineering & Transports
0912 Materials Engineering
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
63
Date Publish Online
2019-05-11