Rolling contact fatigue in lubricated contacts

Abstract

This work presents and discusses the results of rolling contact fatigue tests (IP-300) with six different lubricants using a four-ball E.P. lubricant tester. These results tended to confirm the mechanism for rolling fatigue proposed by Jin and Kang. The lubricants tested were two mineral oils (SN 350 and SN 600) and four synthetic oils (PAG-9, PAG-12, PAO 6, and PAO X), the test machine used was a Four-Ball E.P., and the IP 300/87 standard was applied. The results indicated that: 1) lubrication has an important influence on the rolling fatigue life of mechanical components; 2) normally, in oils of the same family, the higher the viscosity is, the higher the rolling fatigue life is; 3) besides viscosity, other lubricant properties such as the pressure–viscosity coefficient (α), compressibility (B), and the EHL friction coefficient (γ), should all be taken into account for lubricated contact design.