Preliminary Research on Response of GCr15 Bearing Steel under Cyclic Compression

During the bearing service, a series of microstructural evolutions will arise inside the material, such as the appearance of feature microstructures. The essential reason for the microstructural evolution is the cumulative effect of cyclic stress. The Hertz Contact formula is usually adopted to calculate the internal stress, and there is a correlation between the shape and distribution of the feature microstructure and the stress distribution. But it is insufficient to explain the relationship between the morphology of feature microstructures and the rolling direction, such as specific angles in butterfly and white etching bands. The rolling phenomenon will cause the asymmetry of stress distribution in the material, which is the source of the rolling friction coefficient. Moreover, slipping or microslip will produce additional stress components, which also cause the asymmetry of the stress field. However, there is no experimental or theoretical explanation for the relationship between the asymmetry of the stress field and the feature microstructure. According to the current theory, the appearance of feature microstructures is caused by stress with or without rolling. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the formation mechanism: whether feature microstructures will appear in the uniaxial cyclic compression stress field without rolling. In this paper, uniaxial cyclic compressive stress was loaded into a plate-ball system and a cylinder system. The characteristics of microstructural change of bearing steel (GCr15) were studied. It was found that the hardness of the material increased after the cyclic compressive load, and the inclusions interacted with the matrix material. In the local microregion a white etching area was found, although the scale is very small. No large-scale feature microstructures appeared. Other phenomena in the experiment are also described and analyzed. For example, the production of oil film in the contact area and the changing law of alternating load.