Behavior of medium carbon steel under combined fatigue and wear

The combined fatigue-wear life of medium carbon steel (AISI 1045) was investigated under various combinations of loads and sliding wear conditions using a rotating beam test. The direction of the maximum tensile stress due to bending was perpendicular to that due to wear [1]. Tests were also performed with specimens plated with a thin layer of cadmium or nickel-gold. All of the tests were conducted in the high cycle regime. The results show that the fatigue life of all the specimens at a stress level higher than the endurance limit of the specimen was within the experimental scatter of a typical fatigue test. The effect of sliding wear on fatigue life is manifested primarily by the stress field imposed by the slider on the specimen. In the case of plated specimens, the fatigue life was not significantly affected, although the wear rate was decreased by an order of magnitude.