This paper presents a rolling contact fatigue life prediction model for bearing steel. In the initial stage of rolling contact, the gradient structure appears in the subsurface region of bearing steel and the hardness shows a gradient distribution along the contact depth direction due to the roller compaction effect. This indicates that the fatigue resistance of bearing steel varies in the subsurface region. Besides, each subsurface material volume element is subject to different stress cycles. Based on Weibull theory, the survival possibility of subsurface volume elements is formulated. Then the rolling contact fatigue life is evaluated considering the stress state and anti-fatigue performance of each elementary volume of the subsurface material. According to the phenomenon and assumption, the model proposed for gradient material was applied in the rolling contact fatigue life prediction of the bearing steel GCr15 and validated with the fatigue experiment data in the open literature. Furthermore, the accuracy of the proposed model results was compared with the traditional empirical rolling contact fatigue life prediction models.

中文翻译：

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考虑循环硬化梯度结构的轴承钢滚动接触疲劳寿命预测模型

本文提出了轴承钢滚动接触疲劳寿命预测模型。在滚动接触初期，由于碾压效应，轴承钢表层下区域出现梯度结构，硬度沿接触深度方向呈现梯度分布。这表明轴承钢的疲劳抗力在亚表面区域存在差异。此外，每个地下材料体积单元都受到不同的应力循环。基于威布尔理论，公式化了地下体积单元的生存可能性。然后考虑地下材料各单元体积的应力状态和抗疲劳性能来评估滚动接触疲劳寿命。根据这一现象和假设，将提出的梯度材料模型应用于轴承钢GCr15的滚动接触疲劳寿命预测，并利用公开文献中的疲劳实验数据进行验证。此外，将所提出模型结果的准确性与传统的经验滚动接触疲劳寿命预测模型进行了比较。