A review of analytical aspects of fretting fatigue, with extension to damage parameters, and application to dovetail joints

Recent advances by the authors in analytical methods for the analysis of pl ane fretting fatigue (FF) contact problems are described, acid new conseque nces for FF damage are derived. Constant normal load and oscillating tangen tial load (the celebrated Cattaneo-Mindlin case) are considered with in-pha se oscillating moderate bulk stresses, for an arbitrary spline rotated geom etry and, in particular, the flat punch with rounded corners in view of app lication to the dovetail joints. Extremely simple, new results are found for initiation parameters such as t angential microslip and frictional energy, which have been used under certa in conditions as threshold parameters for FF. Finally, it is shown that for an "almost flat" geometry, the surface damage parameters decrease, but the tensile stress concentration increases, altho ugh it becomes more localized, suggesting that for cracks eventually initia ted, the likelihood of self-arrest is higher than in the equivalent Hertzia n case with same loads. This seems to interpret recent experiments, althoug h it is not clear whether the optimal geometry in terms of FF life is the p erfectly hat one, or an intermediate one. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.