Effects of Water Jet Shot Peening Pretreatment on Contact Fatigue Properties of 42CrMo Steel After Plasma Nitriding
LI Guomeng1,2,3, LIANG Yilong1,2,3, FAN Hangjing1,2,3, ZHANG Xiongfei1,2,3, ZHU Yong1,2,3
1 College of Materials and Metallurgy, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025 2 Key Laboratory for Material Structure and Strength of Guizhou Province, Guiyang 550025 3 National local Co-construction Engineering Laboratory for High Performance Metal Structure Material and Manufacturing Technology, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025
Abstract: The effects of water jet shot peening pretreatment on rolling contact fatigue properties of 42CrMo steel after plasma nitriding were studied. The WSP+plasma nitriding was explored by using water jet shot peening at high pressure technology and vacuum pulse plasma nitriding technology. The microstructure, surface integrity and fatigue fracture morphologies of surface-treated specimens were characterized using optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, XRD residual stress tester, surface roughness tester and microhardness tester. The results show that the rolling contact fatigue properties of the pre-WSPed samples were obviously enhanced, which can be mainly attributed to a much better nitriding results it got after WSP pretreatment. The fine well-distributed nitrides and the grain refinement of surface are favorable for suppressing the initiation and propagation of vertical short cracks, which changes the mechanism of crack initiation. The deeper hardness and residual stress gradient delay the initiation of subsurface cracks. The higher residual compress stress suppresses the initiation of branched cracks and the propagation of subsurface main cracks. Therefore, the failure mechanism is closer to Hertz theory, and the fatigue life of 42CrMo steel after nitriding is enhanced.