Wear 256 (2004) 208219

Failure modes of ceramic rolling elements

with surface crack defects
Y. Wang , M. Hadfield
School of Design, Engineering and Computing, Bournemouth University, Royal London House,
Christchurch Road, Bournemouth BH1 3LT, UK
Received 23 January 2003; accepted 19 May 2003

Abstract
The properties of ceramics, specifically low density and high stiffness are of most interest to gas turbine and machine tool manufacturers.
High hardness, low coefficient of thermal expansion and high temperature capability are properties also suited to rolling element materials.
Much research over the past two decades on its structure, quality control and manufacturing techniques has produced ceramic materials
which can seriously be considered for rolling contact bearing design. However, the difficulties of both sintering and machining the material
may result in surface cracks. It is difficult to detect such cracks during high volume production processes and hence there is an important
need to understand their influence and fundamental mechanism of the failures they cause. In the present study, the mechanisms of fatigue
failure from surface cracks subjected to rolling contact have been studied experimentally and numerically. A three-dimensional boundary
element model has been developed to study the failure mechanisms in rolling contact. The calculated results show that surface crack
initiated fatigue failure involves fatigue crack propagation from original surface cracks and secondary surface crack formation when
the crack reaches a critical condition. The secondary surface cracks play a dominant role in the formation of spalling fatigue failure. A
comprehensive experimental study has been carried out to verify the numerical prediction. A modified four-ball machine is employed to
perform rolling contact fatigue tests. Results from the experimental test are in good agreement with the results from the numerical analysis.
2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Surface crack; Rolling contact; Pitting formation; Ceramics

1. Introduction since they can lead to early or catastrophic failure. Many

High quality silicon nitride ceramics have shown advan-
tages for rolling element bearing applications [1]. In par-
ticular hybrid bearings (silicon nitride rolling elements and
steel races) have the ability to withstand high loads, severe
environments and high speeds. However, the difficulties of
both sintering and machining the material may result in sur-
face defects, such as surface ring cracks. It is difficult to
detect surface ring cracks during high volume production
processes and hence it is crucially important to understand
their influence and the fundamental mechanism of the fail-
ures they cause.
Surface cracks caused by manufacturing pressing faults
or blunt impact loads are the most common type found
on ceramic ball surfaces. Such cracks are circular extend-
ing for approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of the circumference of a
circle. These circular cracks have been studied extensively
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ywang@bournemouth.ac.uk (Y. Wang),
mhadfield@bournemouth.ac.uk (M. Hadfield).
efforts have been made to investigate their influence on fail-
ure modes in the past decade [24]. The results revealed
the role played by a lubricating medium in the process of
fatigue failure. The pre-cracked ceramic ball failed in a
non-catastrophic spalling mode. A study [5] on natural sur-
face ring cracks (found on silicon nitride as purchased from
manufacturers and not produced artificially) showed that the
ring cracks did not develop into cone cracks but failed due
to delamination. All those results placed high reliance on
random crack location and did not focus on the significance
of specific crack locations. In a study [6], a new rolling con-
tact fatigue test method was devised for positioning the ring
crack. Consequently, the surface ring crack was located pre-
cisely within the contact path. The results showed that the
natural surface crack failure is dependent on the crack lo-
cation within the contact path. Fatigue failure happens only
in a few crack locations/orientations. A fracture mechanics
approach has been utilised to explain the influence of the
crack location on rolling contact fatigue performance [7].
The reason for differences in rolling contact fatigue perfor-
mance is that different crack locations have different stress

0043-1648/$ see front matter 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0043-1648(03)00409-5
 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
intensity factors (SIFs) values which govern the crack prop-
agation behaviour.
Fatigue crack propagation is always involved in rolling
contact fatigue failure. Many investigations have been com-
pleted to relate crack propagation behaviour with RCF life
performance [8,9]. They analysed a subsurface crack paral-
lel to the surface of a half-plane subjected to a Hertzian sur-
face load. The SIFs at the crack tips were calculated from
an approximate stress field induced by the contact load in a
crack-free half-plane. Several researchers analysed surface
cracks at an angle to a surface acted on by a Hertzian con-
tact load [10,11]. In one study [10], lubrication pressure was
considered as a crack opening force; in another [11], suf-
ficient lubrication was taken to exist in the crack such that
the crack face friction was zero. The analyses were further
extended to include the effects of subsurface inclusions and
asperity perturbations on the pitting crack [12]. Finally, a
thorough analysis of the surface pitting crack summarised
the effects of crack face friction and lubrication pressures on
crack propagation, and included loading history dependence
when regimes of slip and stick were considered for the crack
[13]. In all of these analyses, mode II stresses were the main
cause of crack propagation. This caused crack propagation
to be highly dependent on the coefficient of friction between
the crack faces.
A more recent study has shown that fatigue spalling pro-
cesses involved the original surface crack propagation as
well as the secondary surface cracks induced as the crack
grows [14]. Hence the fatigue life cannot be simply deter-
mined in terms of the propagation life of the surface crack
and the subsequent surface damage also plays an important
Fig. 1. Coordinate system of a ring crack subjected to contact loading.
209
role in the whole life prediction. However, there are no such
models to predict those subsequent surface cracks at present
due to little fundamental understanding of failure modes.
While there has been much experimental investigation into
rolling contact fatigue of ceramics resulting in phenomeno-
logical representations of the fatigue process, a more widely
applicable understanding of fatigue in contact loading is still
under development. A detailed analysis of spalling processes
under a three-dimensional rolling contact has not so far been
attempted, and it is the subject of this paper.
2. Theory
To simplify the analysis, the geometry and loading system
used in the three-dimensional model is idealised as shown
in Fig. 1, where a surface loading traverses a surface crack,
repeatedly. For the purpose of the numerical calculation, it is
assumed that normal contact pressure p(x, y) and tangential
traction q(x, y) within the contact region are expressed by
the following equations:


x2 + y 2
p(x, y) = p0 1 (1)
a2
q(x, y) = fp(x, y) (2)
where p0 is the maximum normal pressure, a the radius of the
contact circle and f the friction coefficient (strictly traction
coefficient). It is assumed that f < 0 when the contact circle
passes over the ring crack (arc AB) from right to left and f >
0 when passing from left to right. f is assumed to be 0.05. The
210 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
maximum contact pressure p0 is assumed to be 5.58 GPa and
applied to the numerical calculation throughout this study.
The d represents the distance from the centre of the contact
circle to the centre of the ring crack circle.
The geometry of the surface crack is very important to
fracture mechanics analysis and will be considered carefully.
The surface crack is assumed to have an internal cone shaped
crack face with a curved line as the crack front [6]. The
position of an element on the crack face in Fig. 1 may be
written as


 2
x1 = R + l 1 cos cos (3)
0 The physical considerations have been discussed in the


 2
y1 = R + l 1 cos sin
0 SIFs to be solved analytically. The SIF calculation is further

1/2
 2
z1 = 0.224 l cos 1
0 A boundary element method is utilised in the present
where l denotes the crack depth, 0 < l maximum crack
depth (line P1 P2 ), R the radius of the ring crack, the angle
of line P1 P2 to the ball surface, 0 < < /2, represents
the angle of an element position on the crack face, 0
0 and 0 denotes the half angle of the ring crack arc
AB, 0 0 /2. The dimension of an original ring crack
is defined as crack radius = 0.21 mm; crack angle = 51 ;
crack depth = 0.05 mm; 0 = /4. These parameters are
applied to the SIF calculations throughout this study.
As the contact circle passes over the ball surface, the
crack front will pass from compressive to tensile and back
to compressive stress continuously. The SIFs will change as
the distance d changes. It is unnecessary to describe con-
tinually the variation of the SIFs for the determination of
crack growth. Assume that the contact radius a equals the
ring crack radius. The maximum stress intensity is com-
puted when d = 0 and the minimum is assumed to be zero
(when d ). When the crack lies in the compressive re-
gion (0 < d < 2a), the SIF KI is less than zero. Hence the
crack front will not propagate along the main growth path in
the compressive region. However, secondary surface cracks
may occur due to the existence of the surface cracks, and the
branch cracks on the crack faces may also occur due to the
crack face contact. The subsurface behaviour is affected by
d, which may be a rather complex process due to Hertzian
loading in a cyclic fashion.
When the contact circle moves over the crack, the faces
of the crack may touch, and friction forces may therefore
act between them. Here, we model crack face friction using
Coulombs law, with a coefficient fc . It is assumed that fc
equals 0 when the crack faces are fully lubricated. Various
crack face friction coefficients (fc ) are selected to simulate
different lubrication conditions. When the contact circle ap-
proaches the ring crack, the mouth of the crack will open.
The crack will close as the contact circle moves away. It is
assumed that the crack closes completely when the Hertz
load is removed and the initial gap is zero. Under repeated
cyclic loading, the gap between crack faces will increase
physically due to the wear of the crack faces. In fact, the
phenomenon of gap increase has been observed experimen-
tally. This gap may be critical to the magnitude and distri-
bution of the stresses on the surface, especially when the
crack gap increases significantly.
2.1. Calculation of SIFs
above analysis. The computation of the SIFs is now con-
sidered. In general, the geometry and loading encountered
(4) in three-dimensional crack problems is too complex for the
complicated because it is a function of the position along
the crack front, the crack size and shape, type of loading
(5) and geometry of the structure.
study. There are several ways to model a crack in bound-
ary element modelling. The dual boundary element method
(DBEM) is used for the crack growth analysis. The dual
boundary element method [15] considers two independent
equations: the displacement and traction boundary integral
equations, with the same integration path for each pair of
coincident source points. The crack is represented by two el-
ements occupying the same physical location, each element
representing a face of the crack. The displacement and trac-
tion boundary integral equations are on the crack surface.
The use of dual elements for 3D crack growth means that
only one surface of the crack needs to be defined.
The SIFs are computed using a crack opening displace-
ment method. When one point formulae are employed, the
modes I, II and III SIFs are evaluated using the following
equations [16]:

E
KI = (un |= un |= ) (6)
4(1 ) 2r
2

E
KII = (ut |= ut |= ) (7)
4(1 2 ) 2r

E
KIII = (uu |= uu |= ) (8)
4(1 )
2 2r
where u is the displacement of the crack faces and the sub-
scripts n, t and u denote the normal, first tangential and sec-
ond tangential directions, respectively.
The crack front will propagate as long as the SIF value cor-
responding to the same point along the crack front reaches
the threshold value Kth . For this mixed-mode crack growth,
the crack propagation is not behaving in a coplanar way.
The direction of the crack increment extension along the
crack front needs to be determined in order to simulate the
crack growth. There have been several criteria to describe
 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
the local direction of mixed-mode crack growth, e.g. max-
imum principle stress, maximum energy release rate and
minimum strain energy density. The minimum strain energy
density criterion is adopted in this paper. The direction of
crack propagation at any point along the crack front is to-
wards the region where the strain energy density factor is at
a minimum [17].
2.2. Calculation of the stresses on the surfaces
Since the surface crack exists the stress distribution on
the surface will be affected significantly by the measure-
ment d (see Fig. 1) and the crack face contact behaviour. A
three-dimensional crack face contact model needs to be de-
veloped. For the purpose of the calculations, it is assumed
that the propagated crack can be described in Eqs. (3)(5).
The calculation is carried out at various measurements of d
and different crack sizes. We feel that the understanding of
the variations of the stresses on the surfaces is the key to
revealing the nature of the surface crack failure in rolling
contact. Two crack sizes are used and their dimensions are
described as follows:
Case 1: R = 0.21 mm, l = 0.051 mm, 0 = 45 , = 51 .
Case 2: R = 0.21 mm, l = 0.082 mm, 0 = 45 , = 42 .
The boundary element method is employed to perform
contact analysis. The boundary element method, quite apart
from its ease of use and accuracy is very suitable for
contact analysis because contact is essentially a boundary
phenomenon. The use of the boundary element method to
Fig. 2. Plots of SIFs in crack propagation: (a) initial crack; (b) first extension; (c) second extension; (d) comparison of KI .
211
analyse contact problems has been addressed by numerous
author [17]. The BEM model that is created incorporates a
vertical symmetry plane through the middle of the ball to
reduce the number of elements used in the model. Elements
do not need to be placed on the symmetry plane and this
further reduces the size of the model. Contact is modelled in
the BEM model using the softwares initial gap boundary
condition. This boundary condition defines a gap between
two crack faces. Initial gap values are defined over an entire
crack surface containing elements.
3. Calculation results
3.1. Stress intensity factors
In developing the crack growth model, assume that the
original crack propagation is driven by the stress intensities
arising from the Hertzian stress field. If the stress intensi-
ties on the crack front are higher than the threshold value
of crack growth, then the crack front will propagate. If not,
no crack growth occurs. Therefore, to determine whether a
crack propagates under the applied load, the calculated SIFs
need to be compared with the threshold of crack growth. For
hot isostatically pressed (HIP) silicon nitride bearing mate-
rial, the fracture toughness KIC value is around 6 MPa m1/2 .
The threshold Kth of crack propagation ranges from 2 to
4 MPa m1/2 .
Fig. 2 depicts the variations in SIFs at different stages
of crack extensions. Computations are based on a predicted
212 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
Fig. 3. (a) Plot of KI versus crack increment. (b) Plot of crack growth versus fatigue cycles.
crack growth path, with the crack re-meshing after propa-
gating. As can be seen from the plots of the SIFs, the stress
intensities change as the crack grows and they are also a
function of angle . KI values at = 45 (the surface)
reach a maximum for the initial crack front and decrease as
the crack front grows. The comparison of Fig. 2(a)(c) re-
veals that mode I stress intensity KI is always larger than
mode II KII and mode III KIII , by approximately 34 times.
Hence, it is reasonable to say that mode I stress intensity KI
will dominate the fatigue crack propagation behaviour. The
comparison of the stress intensity KI after different stages
of crack extension is shown in Fig. 2(d), which implies that
the increment size on the crack front at different points will
change due to the difference in the KI value. For example,
when = 0 , the growth reaches a maximum extension
compared with other point locations. This may be why a
fatigue spall contour always takes an ellipse shape.
Fig. 3(a) shows the plot of the SIF KI as a function of crack
extension. The calculation of SIFs presented here, while ap-
proximately for = 0 , may be useful in fatigue life predic-
tion. The computations are based on an assumed crack path
derived from Eqs. (3)(5). The aim here is to relate the SIFs
to crack propagation. The calculated results show that the
stress intensity KI decreases with crack front propagation
and hence crack propagation will be arrested when a certain
extension size is reached. This may explain why the rolling
contact failure mode of silicon nitride is non-catastrophic.
To demonstrate what spall size is expected to be reached
in the spalling failure, we use the Paris equation
da
= c(K)m
dn
by substituting KI = 19.181x + 4.5475 from Fig. 3(a)
to solve fatigue cycles requested for a certain crack size.
Fatigue cycles can be obtained by integrating Eq. (9), which
is expressed as follows:
ac ac
da da
n= m
= (10)
a0 c(K) a0 c(4.5475 19.181a)m
Integration of Eq. (10), then gives
1
n= [(4.5475 19.181ac )m+1
19.181c(m 1)
(4.5475 19.181a0 )m+1 ] (11)
The constants in the Paris law of Eq. (11) are obtained from
the fatigue crack propagation studies. The value for c is
1.011021 and the exponent m for HIP material is 18 [18].
The calculated fatigue cycles for the different crack ex-
tensions are shown in Fig. 3(b). The results indicate that the
original ring crack propagation may reach the lower bounds
of a spall size normally observed (0.30.4 mm in diame-
ter). It should be emphasised that it is still hard to describe
the spall sheet separation although the crack may be able
to propagate to the spall size. Inspection of Fig. 3(b) re-
veals that the crack front is hard to propagate when it grows
to 0.09 mm (5 107 fatigue cycles). Experimental obser-
vations show that the fatigue cycles are between 1.5 107
and 5 107 . The radius of the spall is on an average of
0.20.25 mm. The predicted spall size is smaller than the
observed size. There may exist other crack growth which
would enlarge the spall size.
The predicted crack growth path is shown in Fig. 4. Ac-
cording to this contour the crack grows slightly in width at
the initial crack propagation and then it propagates into the
inside of the material. Looking at the case = 0 , crack
growth is almost parallel to the surface in the first crack in-
crement. In the second and third extension, the crack grows
in the direction of 1015 to the surface, depending on the
loading condition. Experimental investigations were con-
(9)
Fig. 4. Predicted crack growth path.
 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
ducted to determine whether crack growth would follow the
predicted contours. It is found that the present predictions
are consistent with the experimental observations.
Experimental observation shows that the original ring
crack growth is downwards and conical. If a fatigue spall
resulting from rolling contacts is due to propagation of the
original ring crack, then it seems very difficult to describe the
final separation. Stress intensities propagating cracks are a
major factor in fatigue spall formation but the cause of spall
sheet separating needs clarification. To explain the sheet sep-
aration, the lubricant hydrostatic pressure was assumed to
open the crack and to force it to grow back to the surface.
It is questionable whether enough fluid is available to force
the crack open since the film thickness is generally small
under contact loading [13]. The authors believe that the sub-
sequent effects arising from the crack face contacts play a
dominant role in rolling contact fatigue spall. The nature of
the fatigue spall can be revealed provided that stress field
analyses arising from the crack surface contact are fully un-
derstood. This will be discussed in the following sections.
3.2. Stress distributions on the surfaces
The existence of the surface cracks will change the dis-
tribution of the stresses on the surface. Generally, the sur-
face tensile stress for the formation of visible ring cracks
is much greater than that required for fracture in bulk ten-
sile specimens. According to experimental studies [19], the
ring crack will occur when the maximum contact pressure
reaches about 1215 GPa for HIP silicon nitride balls with
12.7 mm diameter. This compressive stress corresponds to
the maximum tensile stress of 1.842.25 GPa occurring at
the edge of the contact circle. This critical value will be
used as the criterion for assessing the formation of the sec-
ondary surface cracks. How a pre-existing crack affects the
formation of subsequent surface cracks is discussed below.
3.2.1. Influence of crack gap
The influence of the crack gap on the stresses on the
ball surface is computed and results are shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5(a) illustrates the variations of the maximum principal
Fig. 5. Influence of the crack gap on the stress distributions (Case 1, d = 0.047 mm, f = 0.05, fc = 0): (a) along the x-axis; (b) along the contact circle.
213
stress along the x-axis. Fig. 5(b) shows the distribution of
the maximum tensile stress (maximum principal stress) at
the surface along the contact circle. Half diagram is given
here due to the symmetry of the plane y = 0. The results in-
dicate that the magnitude and distribution of surface traction
is a function of . The crack studied here is a shallow crack
(Case 1, R = 0.21 mm, l = 0.05 mm, 0 = 45 , = 51 ),
d = 0.047 mm and hence the crack is fully under the com-
pressive zone. The directions of the principal stresses are
determined in terms of the analysis of eigen-vectors and the
directions of maximum principal stress at any point along
the circle are approximately orthogonal to that circle. The
results show that the maximum tensile stress increases sig-
nificantly with the increase of the crack gap. These calcu-
lated results predict that new surface cracks will form if the
crack gap reaches a certain value. It is evident that for brittle
materials secondary surface ring cracks may control the final
spall sheet separation. The secondary surface cracks are cir-
cular are of a similar radius to the original ring crack circle.
These secondary surface cracks grow downward as soon as
they form, join and connect with the trajectory of the main
crack path. Consequently, a spall is eventually formed. This
may explain why the spall contours always took the ellipse
shape.
The calculated results are now studied in detail. There
are hardly any changes in the magnitude and distribution of
stresses for any gap (0, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 m) between 60 and
90 (non-crack area). Compare the case of no crack with the
case of crack gap = 0, there is very slight variation from
= 0 to 60 . However, the maximum tensile stresses will
increase significantly when the crack gap exceeds 0.2 m,
which approximates 1.8 GPa. When the gap is 0.5 m the
maximum tensile strength will reach 2.7 GPa. This tensile
stress is large enough to initiate new surface cracks. It can be
concluded that the secondary surface cracks must be formed
on the surface if the crack gap exceeds 0.2 m (0.2 at crack
mouth decreases linearly to 0 at crack tip). The question
arises from here as to whether it is possible for this gap to
form between the crack faces. The experimental observation
has shown that the gap will increase and may reach 0.2 m
due to the wear of contacting crack faces.
214 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219

Fig. 6. Stress distribution on the surface at the contact circle (Case 1, d = 0.047 mm, fc = 0): (a) gap = 0.5 m; (b) f = +0.05.

The influence of tangential traction direction (or rolling
direction) on surface stresses is investigated and the results
are shown in Fig. 6. The maximum tensile stress along the
contact circle will decrease significantly when the tangential
traction direction is reversed. Consequently, the possibility
of forming secondary surface cracks will be different as the
rolling direction changes. This implies that the spalling fa-
tigue life will be influenced by the change of traction di-
rection. The results also indicate that there still exists the
possibility of producing secondary surface cracks if the gap
exceeds a certain value, e.g. 0.5 m, for a shallow crack.
3.2.2. Influence of crack size
Critical crack size is an important quantity parameter in
fracture mechanics analysis and for rolling element bearing
quality control. The durability of the cracked body can be
predicted in terms of the crack size using a fracture mechan-
ics approach. Hence, it is crucially important to understand
the influence of cracks on the distribution of the surface
stresses. In the above analysis, the shallow crack (Case 1)
has been discussed. The crack studied here is a deep crack
(Case 2, R = 0.21 mm, l = 0.082 mm, 0 = 45 , = 42 ).
Since the surface stresses along the circle are affected signif-
icantly by distance d, we will focus on: (1) d = 0.047 mm;
(2) d = 0.091 mm to examine the stress variations. For
d = 0.047 mm the crack is partly under the compressive
zone. Fig. 7(a) shows that there are no differences from =
60 to 90 but significant changes from = 0 to 60 . The
maximum tensile stress is much higher than that without the
pre-existing cracks and increases as the gap increases. For
d = 0.091 mm the crack is fully under the compressive zone
and the result is shown in Fig. 7(b). As shown in Fig. 7(a),
there are no differences from = 75 to 90 , but significant
changes in the crack area from = 0 to 75 .
It is obvious that the distribution of the stresses on the
surface along the contact circle changes as d changes and
the maximum tensile stress on the surface increases signifi-
cantly as the crack depth increases. These calculated results
predict that the larger the crack size, the easier for the for-
mation of new surface cracks. Hence the spall fatigue life
will be short for the deep cracks. The results also indicate
that the maximum tensile stresses on the surface are influ-
enced significantly by the crack gap. The magnitude of the
stresses along the circle increases as the crack size increases.
3.2.3. Influence of crack face friction coefficients
The contacting crack face behaviour is influenced not only
by the crack gap but also by the friction force acting on
the crack faces. In the above analysis, the friction force is
assumed to be zero. The influence of the crack face friction
coefficient on the surface stresses is now investigated and
the results are shown in Fig. 8. As discussed above, there

Fig. 7. Stress distribution on the surfaces at the contact circle (Case 2, f = 0.05, fc = 0): (a) d = 0.047 mm; (b) d = 0.091 mm.
 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
Fig. 8. Influence of the crack face friction coefficients on the stress
distributions at the contact circle (Case 2, d = 0.047 mm, f = 0.05,
gap = 0).
exist influences around the crack (from 0 to 60 ) but no
influences in the non-crack area (from 60 to 90 ). The
results indicate that the maximum tensile stress decreases as
the crack face friction coefficient increases and approaches
the value of no crack if the crack face friction coefficient
exceeds 0.5. The magnitude of the stresses at the circle on
the surface decreases as the coefficient of friction of crack
faces increases.
4. Experiment
4.1. Experimental methods
The rolling contact fatigue tests were performed using a
Plint TE92/HS Rolling Tribometer. This machine was em-
ployed as it simulates rolling elements and precisely defines
the contact load. The upper ball is assembled to a drive shaft
Fig. 9. Loading configuration and ring crack locations on the contact path. (a) Physical configuration of the testing environment. (b) Surface ring crack
subjected to rolling contact, where is the angle of the chord of the ring crack to the central line of the contact track, and is the distance of the centre
of the ring crack circle to the central line of the contact track.
215
via a collet and contacts three lower balls when the machine
is stationary. The contacting positions between the upper
ball and lower balls were immersed in lubricating oil. The
loading configuration was shown in Fig. 9.
In this study, the upper ball was a ceramic ball with a
pre-existing ring crack. Since fatigue performance consid-
erably depends on the crack orientation within the contact
path, the crack position was taken into full account and the
crack was positioned in terms of the experimental procedure
[6,7]. All of the tests were conducted at a maximum Hertzian
contact pressure of 5.58 GPa. The upper ball speed was set
at 5000 rpm. Lubricants used in these tests were chosen to
examine effects of oil viscosity on ring crack fatigue failure.
Low viscosity oil (turbine oil) and high viscosity oil (gear
oil) are used in the present study. The kinematics viscosity at
40 C is 25 and 680 cSt, respectively. Table 1 describes test
conditions of the experiment. Fatigue cycles were recorded
from the ceramic upper ball and tests were stopped at high
vibration levels. The oil average temperature in Table 1 de-
pends on lubricant type and ambient temperature. The crack
radius and length are selected as near as possible.
Silicon nitride balls tested in this study were procured
from specialist manufacturers. They were manufactured by
a HIP method. Ball blanks were ground and polished to
12.7 mm diameter in this case by a manufacturer; standard-
ised procedures were adopted to ensure consistent quality of
material and geometry. The elastic modulus and Poisson ra-
tio were 310 GPa and 0.28, respectively. Average roughness
(Ra ) of the silicon nitride ball surfaces was 0.01 m and ball
roundness was within ball bearing tolerances. The steel ball
was carbon chromium steel with 12.7 mm diameter and a
surface roughness (Ra ) of 0.02 m. The hardness of the sil-
icon nitride balls was on average 1637 Hv. The hardness of
the steel ball was 839 Hv.
216 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219

Table 1
Experiment conditions and results
Test Crack geometry (mm) Crack location Lubricant Fatigue cycles to Time to Average oil
failure (107 ) failure (h) temperature ( C)
A Crack radius = 0.22, = 45 , = 0 Turbine oil 2.75 40.4 36
arc length = 0.39
B Crack radius = 0.22, = 90 , = 0 Turbine oil 1.63 24 35
arc length = 0.35
C Crack radius = 0.22, = 90 , = 0 Gear oil 2.34 34.6 43
arc length = 0.35

4.2. Experimental results and discussion
To understand the mechanism of a ring crack failure, ex-
perimental observations of the spalling processes are impor-
tant. An experimental observation has been carried out to
ascertain ring crack propagation behaviour. A typical tran-
sition process from normal to a spall is shown in Fig. 10.
All the micrographs in Fig. 10 are from Test A. Fig. 10(a)
shows pre-test ring cracks (note a V defect on the right
side). After 27 million stress cycles, new surface cracks are
found beside the original ring cracks (in Fig. 10(b), the V
defect is still visible). These new cracks are defined as sec-
ondary surface cracks in this study. Most of the secondary
surface cracks lie to the right of the original ring crack and
only a few to the left.
The ball is sectioned near the crack and then polished
gradually across the ring crack to examine the profile of
crack propagation. There are two lines in Fig. 10(b), which
indicate the sites at which the section images are taken. The
subsurface image from the first section (line 1) is shown in
Fig. 10(c). A detailed crack network (incipient spalling) is
clearly exhibited. The results reveal that the secondary sur-
face cracks propagate conically away from the ball surface.
Fig. 10(d) shows the subsurface images observed at line 2.
Results show that the depth change is due to the section po-
sition and is less than the depth observed at line 1. Some
materials are removed during the processes of grinding and
polishing and the crack network is clearly shown.
Subsurface observations reveal that the role played by
the secondary surface cracks in the processes of surface

Fig. 10. Surface observations of original ring crack incipient failure (Test A). (a) Pre-test ring cracks, a V mark on the right. (b) Secondary surface
cracks after 40.39 h of testing (lines indicating section positions). (c) Dark field image at line 1. (d) Dark field image at line 2.
 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219 217

Fig. 11. Observations of a ring crack failure. (a) Ring crack becoming visible after 8 h of testing. (b) The gap increases after 17 h of testing. (c) Overview
of fatigue spall SEM (24 h of testing). (d) SEM micrograph showing the crack gap.

fatigue failure. These secondary surface cracks propagate
conically away from the surface and will meet the main
crack growth path from original ring cracks. Branch cracks
can also be generated on the faces of each secondary crack
and these cracks connect with each other to form a broken
crack network. Spalling sheets eventually come away due to
the broken crack network.
The observations from Test B provide experimental evi-
dence of the existence of the crack gap is shown in Fig. 11.
In general, surface ring cracks are not visible using a nor-
mal light source even at high magnification. The cracks
can only be detected using the dye-penetrant method under
ultra-violet light. During the fatigue test, however, the cracks
become visible under normal light conditions. Fig. 11(a)
shows the ring crack after 8 h of fatigue testing and Fig. 11(b)
shows the same ring crack after 17 h of fatigue testing. No
evidence of crack growth is found along the original ring cir-
cle on the surface. The observations reveal that the crack gap
is proportional to the test time. The measurement of the gap
shows that it is possible to reach a value of 0.20.5 m. De-
tailed SEM investigation is carried out as shown in Fig. 11(c)
and (d). The ring crack is still clear which is shown in
Fig. 11(c). Fatigue crack propagation initiates from the orig-
inal ring crack and grows outwards in both directions. The
original ring crack propagation forming a branch crack pat-
tern is clearly displayed on fatigue fracture surfaces. The
mechanisms of ring crack growth must somehow be related
to the formation of fatigue striations. Fig. 11(d) shows the
propagation area formed on the left side. Fatigue crack prop-
agation initiates from the site of the original conic face in
which the subsurface branch cracks are formed. The SEM
observation confirms that the crack gap may reach 0.5 m
(Fig. 11(d)).
Fatigue spall images tested in high viscosity oil are shown
in Fig. 12. Fig. 12(a) shows the ring crack and contact path
after 0.5 h of testing. The crack location is clear and lubri-
cant deposit tends initially towards the edge of the contact
path. Fig. 12(b) shows the spall micrograph after 34.6 h of
testing. The lubricant deposit is removed after spalling. Ex-
perimental observations have shown that the failure mode in
218 Y. Wang, M. Hadfield / Wear 256 (2004) 208219
Fig. 12. Surface observations from Test C. (a) Contact path and ring crack (0.5 h of testing). (b) Spall SEM image (34.6 h of testing).
high viscosity oil is the same as with low viscosity oil but
the fatigue life performance is different. Fatigue life in high
viscosity oil is longer than that in low viscosity oil. The nu-
merical analysis predicts that the initiation possibility of the
secondary surface cracks is decreased as the crack face fric-
tion coefficient increases. Consequently, any factors, which
prevent oil penetrating inside the crack, may lead to the in-
crease of the crack face friction coefficient. The use of higher
viscosity oil may inhibits the amount of fluid that can enter
a crack, and friction forces acting between the faces of the
crack increase. The experimental results agree well with the
prediction in terms of the numerical analysis.
5. Conclusions
The process of surface crack fatigue failure has been anal-
ysed numerically. A comprehensive experimental study has
been carried out to verify the predictions. It is found that the
present predictions regarding surface crack fatigue failure
are consistent with the experimental observations. The main
conclusions which can be drawn from the present study are
as follows:
1. Surface ring crack fatigue failure involves a complex frac-
ture process. The fatigue failure process is influenced not
only by the original crack propagation behaviour but also
strongly influenced by the crack face contact behaviour.
2. Secondary surface cracks are critical to the formation
of spalling fatigue failure. The existence of the surface
cracks is a necessary condition for the initiation of the
secondary surface cracks. These secondary surface cracks
propagate conically away from the surface and meet the
main crack path resulting in the final formation of an
ellipse fatigue spall.
3. The presence of the surface crack significantly increases
the maximum tensile stress at the contact circle. This
high tensile stress leads to the formation of secondary
surface cracks. The maximum tensile stress increases as
the crack gap and the crack depth increase.
4. Crack face friction coefficients significantly affect the
rolling contact fatigue performance and failure modes.
Increasing the crack face friction coefficients decreases
the formation of secondary surface cracks.
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