Cyclic Deformation Caused by Repeatedly Contact Loading

Abstract

An elastic-plastic contact stress analysis is presented to study cyclic plastic deformation of rolling elements under repeatedly contact loadings. The rolling contact is simulated by a Hertzian line contact loading translating over the surface of an elastic-plastic half-space, and the Chaboche nonlinear hardening rule is used to model the cyclic plastic behavior of contact components. A finite element procedure based on the return mapping algorithm is implemented to analyze the evolution plastic strains and residual stresses versus contact cycles. For the contact loading below the shakedown limit, p0/k=4, the plastic deformation occur only at first few contact cycles and become pure elastic in the subsequent cycles due to the existing residual stresses and material hardening. For the contact loading exceeding the shakedown limit, p0/k=7, the plastic strains increase progressively with each pass of contact cycles and result in plastic ratchetting. The normal residual stresses, however, quickly reach a steady state after few contact cycles.