Image Processing in Contact Endurance Research

Abstract

Machine parts operating under contact cyclic loads are subject to a destruction risk in the event of their working surface pitting (destruction). To increase the service life of such parts, various finishing and hardening technologies are used. In the absence of standard methods used to assess the durability of parts operating under contact endurance conditions, they have should be developed in relation to a specific case. The fractal geometry methods' usage in analyzing the surface layer state of parts operating under contact endurance conditions is complicated due to high equipment cost and fine and coarse noise high risk, which negatively affects the quality of generated images. The aim of the work is to develop a simple and accessible method for evaluating the results of contact endurance tests, based on the analysis of the investigated surface images. The developed patented technique consists of several stages. At the first stage, high-resolution photographing of the surface under investigation is performed using a microscope, providing magnification of no more than 1 ? 50. At the second stage, the obtained image is analyzed in the cad editor, where the number and area of the investigated defects are determined. At the third stage, wear result numerical assessment is carried out according to the proposed algorithm.