Liang, X.Z. and Zhao, G.-H. and Owens, J. and Gong, P. and Rainforth, W.M. and Rivera-Díaz-del-Castillo, P.E.J. (2020) Hydrogen-assisted microcrack formation in bearing steels under rolling contact fatigue. International Journal of Fatigue, 134. ISSN 0142-1123
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
A ball-on-rod RCF tester was employed to investigate the failure mechanisms of hydrogen-rich rolling components. The formation of defects, voids and surface cracks is significantly facilitated in hydrogen-rich bearing steels. In samples with RCF cycles of 1.6 × 107, the void density in hydrogen-rich samples is about three times that of hydrogen-free samples, whilst their crack length density four times that of hydrogen-free samples. This is due to a higher stress intensity factor around inclusions which is altered by hydrogen. Further characterisation confirms that grain boundaries are preferential sites for void formation and crack propagation.