Author Contributions
Conceptualization, H.Z. and G.F.; data curation, H.Z.; formal analysis, H.Z.; investigation, H.Z., B.W. and X.L. (Xuming Liu); methodology, H.Z.; project administration, X.L. (Xin Liu); resources, G.F.; supervision, G.F.; writing—original draft, H.Z.; writing—review and editing, X.L. (Xin Liu), B.W. and X.L. (Xuming Liu). All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the new materials manufacturing team from the Central Iron & Steel Research Institute for their great help on the aspects tests of metallographic testing, ASPEX testing and fatigue properties tests. This research was supported by a factory project, which is devoted to the research and development of bearing steel in Jiangsu.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Figure 1.
Working principle of ASPEX: (a) search and measure grid; (b) typical characteristic image.
Figure 2.
Shape and size of the inclusions in bearing steel 1: (a) round; (b) strip and round; (c) polygonal; (d) Strip; (e) strip; (f) strip and round; (g) strip; (h) strip.
Figure 3.
Shape and size of the inclusions in bearing steel 2: (a) round; (b) round; (c) round and ellipse; (d) rhombic; (e) ellipse; (f) polygonal; (g) round; (h) round.
Figure 4.
EDS analysis of bearing steel 1: (a) Al2O3-MgO-CaO; (b) Al2O3-MgO-CaO-MnS; (c) MnS; (d) Al2O3-MgO.
Figure 5.
EDS analysis of bearing steel 2: (a) Al2O3-MgO-MnS; (b) Al2O3-MgO; (c) Al2O3-MgO-CaO-MnS(CaS); (d) Al2O3-MgO-CaO-MnS.
Figure 6.
Dmax/Dmin of the inclusions in the bearing steel samples 1 and 2.
Figure 7.
Size distribution and MnS ratio of composite inclusions in bearing steel: (a) sample 1; (b) sample 2.
Figure 8.
Ternary phase diagram of the composite inclusion components Al2O3, MgO, CaO, MnS in bearing steel: (a) sample 1; (b) sample 2.
Figure 9.
Liquid phase projection of the Al2O3–CaO–MgO–MnS system with different MnS contents: (a) 5% MnS; (b) 10% MnS; (c) 20% MnS; (d) 40% MnS.
Figure 10.
Solubility product of MnS in the equilibrium and the real state with solid fraction.
Figure 11.
Solid fraction changing with temperature during the solidification.
Figure 12.
Mass fraction of MnS changing with temperature during the solidification.
Figure 13.
P−N curves of the rolling contact fatigue experiments on steel samples 1 and 2.
Table 1.
Chemical composition of bearing steel samples.
Elements | C | Si | Mn | P | S | Cr | Mo | Ti | Al | O |
---|
1# | 0.99 | 0.25 | 0.41 | 0.01 | 0.007 | 1.35 | 0.019 | 0.001 | 0.015 | 0.0002 |
2# | 0.96 | 0.27 | 0.39 | 0.009 | 0.001 | 1.57 | 0.01 | 0.002 | 0.014 | 0.0006 |
Table 2.
Statistics of the inclusions in the different bearing steel samples per square centimeter.
Inclusion Composition | TiN | MnS | Complex Inclusion with MnS | No MnS Complex Inclusion | Total Number of Inclusions | Percentage of MnS Inclusions |
---|
1# | 0 | 7 | 22 | 1 | 30 | 96.7% |
2# | 2 | 0 | 104 | 22 | 128 | 81.3% |
Table 3.
Interaction coefficients of Mn and S in molten steel at 1873 K [
28].
| C | Si | Mn | P | S | Cr | Mo | Al | O | Ti |
---|
Mn | −0.07 | 0 | 0 | −0.0035 | −0.048 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −0.083 | 0 |
S | 0.11 | 0.063 | −0.0026 | 0.029 | −0.028 | −0.011 | 0.0027 | 0.035 | −0.27 | −0.072 |
Table 4.
Diffusion coefficient and equilibrium partition of Mn and S [
29].
Element | | |
---|
Mn | 0.055Exp(−249366/RT) | 0.785 |
S | 2.4Exp(−223426/RT) | 0.035 |
Table 5.
Contact cycle times of the bearing steel fracture (cycles).
Sample | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
---|
1# | 3.45 × 106 | 2.94 × 106 | 2.65 × 106 | 2.68 × 106 | 0.83 × 106 | 1.07 × 106 | 1.34 × 106 | 0.57 × 106 | 1.52 × 106 | 0.42 × 106 |
2# | 1.63 × 106 | 1.12 × 106 | 0.98 × 106 | 1.24 × 106 | 1.09 × 106 | 1.83 × 106 | 0.69 × 106 | 0.48 × 106 | 0.75 × 106 | 1.29 × 106 |
Table 6.
Characteristic value of the fatigue life and the Weibull slope of bearing steel by different standards [
31].
Sample | L10 | k |
---|
SUJ2 | 0.685 × 106 | 2.214 |
GCr15 | 0.543 × 106 | 3.269 |
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