Effect of pad rotation angle and coefficient of friction on fretting fatigue crack nucleation behavior

Abstract

Fretting fatigue may occur on surfaces that are in contact, subjected to a normal load, and where there is a cyclic small relative movement between them. It could occur in press-fitted shafts, bolted and dovetail joints, and many other engineering components. It is recognized that the coefficient of friction of the contacting bodies is a primary variable in the fretting process. Also, a recent study indicates that its behavior might be greatly affected by the possible rotation of the pad. Consequently, the aim of this investigation is to evaluate the impact of diverse angles of rotation of the pad and different coefficients of friction on crack initiation angle, location, and life. For this purpose, a numerical model based on a finite element model of a cylinder-plane test configuration is constructed. The Fatemi-Socie damage parameter for multiaxial fatigue is used to evaluate initiation behavior. Firstly, different angles of rotation are applied to the pad, in order to model a lack of stiffness of the test rig, while the coefficient of friction is kept constant and equal to 0.75. Secondly, several coefficients of friction between the pad and the specimen are utilized, while considering a cyclic rotation of the pad between 0.19° and – 0.19°. For the case studied, the results indicate that an increase of the coefficient of friction (μ) may cause a substantial reduction of crack initiation life. However, a variation of μ in the range 0.75 ≤ μ ≤ 0.85 does not produce a significant change in life estimation. This suggests that it cannot be stated that an increase in the coefficient of friction always leads to a reduction in nucleation life. Regarding the angle of initiation of the crack, the results show that an increase of μ causes an approximately linear reduction of the angle. In the case of an increase of the pad angle of rotation, this causes a longer nucleation life and a smaller crack nucleation angle. Even the rotation angle of 0.23° produces an increase of initiation life from 16.6 to 154 thousand cycles. It is concluded that there is a major impact on initiation behavior of the coefficient of friction and the rotation of the pad, which may be due to the lack of rigidity of the test setup. Therefore, controlling the stiffness of the test rig and measuring accurately the coefficient of friction are important factors to consider in fretting fatigue research.