Ratchetting–multiaxial fatigue damage analysis in gear rolling contact considering tooth surface roughness

Under the combined effect of the tooth surface roughness and heavy load condition, gear materials might experience both the fatigue damage and the ratchetting damage. An elastic-plastic finite element contact fatigue model is proposed considering the optically measured tooth surface roughness and the gear contact geometry. The kinematic hardening constitutive equation and the Jiang and Sehitoglu ratchetting-multiaxial fatigue model are applied, and the contribution of the ratchetting-fatigue damage in the mechanism of gear contact fatigue problems is discussed. Results reveal that the surface roughness can promote the emergence of ratchetting behavior within a very shallow area near surface. Furthermore, the effect of the normal load condition on the ratchetting-fatigue damage is also discussed.