A Comparative Study of Multiaxial High-Cycle Fatigue Criteria Applied to Rough Rolling Contacts

Rolling contacts are a major topic in scientific studies as they are highly exposed to fatigue damage. Indeed, the applied loads generate periodic stresses and the surface roughness generates stress concentrations close to the surface. The combination of these two phenomena facilitates fatigue damage. Many multi-axial criteria have been created to explain and predict this type of damage. Furthermore, a large number of papers compare the different fatigue criteria based on combined bending and torsion tests [1,2]. However, these studies are not representative of the stress gradients found in rough contacts, close to the surface. Hence the current work, which proposes a comparative study of several fatigue criteria with a combined experimental and numerical approach.