Influence of induction hardening residual stresses on rolling contact fatigue lifetime

Rolling contact fatigue is a unique mode of fatigue that components under cyclic contact loading experience. In this work, the impact of induction hardening residual stresses in rolling contact fatigue lifetime is investigated experimentally and numerically using the Dang Van multiaxial criterion. Various residual stress fields from induction hardening are simulated using the finite element method and are mapped into a classical mono-contact finite element model. The impact of induction hardened residual stresses on the lifetime of a component has been investigated, and the importance of incorporating the residual stress profile into fatigue life assessments is affirmed.