Influence of roughness parameters skewness and kurtosis on fatigue life under mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication point contacts

The numerical studies on the influences of surface parameters skewness and kurtosis on tribological characteristics under mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (mixed EHL) conditions are extended to fatigue life. Non-Gaussian rough surfaces are generated numerically with given autocorrelation function, skewness, and kurtosis. The results show that the maximum pressure increases as the skewness increases, however its variation with kurtosis is closely related to skewness. Similar trends to that of the maximum pressure are observed for the maximum von Mises stress. The fatigue life decreases as the skewness increases, however it undergoes apparent fluctuations with the increase of kurtosis. As the kurtosis increases, the influence of skewness on fatigue life becomes more significant, and vice versa.