Effect of retained austenite on rolling element fatigue and its mechanism

Experiments were carried out on a rolling contact fatigue testing machine with two rollers as specimens which were made of the commercial steel 18Cr2Ni4WA. Various treatments are conducted to obtain rollers with different amounts of retained austenite. The experimental results show that the contact fatigue resistance of the specimen with the largest amount of retained austenite is much better than that of the specimen with the smaller amount of retained austenite. It is considered that the precipitation particles from austenite, the deformation-induced martensite, the beneficial alteration of the residual stresses and the toughness of the austenite are the main reasons for the high contact fatigue resistance of this steel.