AUTHOR=Hwang Jae-Il , Poll Gerhard 

TITLE=A new approach for the prediction of fatigue life in rolling bearings based on damage accumulation theory considering residual stresses

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Manufacturing Technology

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/manufacturing-technology/articles/10.3389/fmtec.2022.1010759

DOI=10.3389/fmtec.2022.1010759

ISSN=2813-0359

ABSTRACT=Today, the service life of rolling bearings is standardized in ISO 281, based on the theory of 
Lundberg and Palmgren. The material properties such as fatigue limit stress were taken into
account by introducing the fatigue limit stress proposed by Ioannides and Harris. The standard
calculation model provides a reasonable range of fatigue life in good agreement with experimental
results under ideal test conditions such as constant external load magnitude. However, as the
operating conditions of bearings become more complex with advances in technology, bearings
are exposed to varying loads and oscillating motion. Therefore, a new analytical calculation
model that can predict the fatigue life of rolling bearings operating under these conditions is
needed. In the proposed approach in this study, the fatigue life is determined based on the
Palmgren-Miner linear damage rule, evaluating the subsurface stresses below the rolling contact
using the S-N curve according to the fatigue criterion proposed by Lundberg and Palmgren. All
rolling contacts that occur in an internal stress cycle due to the internal dynamic behavior during
rotating operations are evaluated individually and referred to as partial damage risks. The partial
damage risks are accumulated linearly according to the Palmgren-Miner theory to obtain the load
cycle to failure consequently. At this time, the loaded volume is assessed along the depth from the
contact area to the core of the bearing ring, which makes it possible to indicate the depth position
of fatigue occurrence in terms of crack initiation. The material properties such as the fatigue limit
stress and the probability of failure are taken from the S-N curve itself. To consider the residual
stress, a simple concept is suggested by using the ratio of the maximum contact pressure to
the yield criteria. The proposed approach can be extended to calculate oscillating fatigue life
regarding the number of rolling contacts at a given oscillation amplitude. The calculation results
according to ISO 281 are compared with the results obtained by using the proposed approach,
which shows a good agreement with the calculation results obtained by using ISO 281.