@article{Man2026, 
author = {Weiwei Man and Liqin Wang and Panlong Wu and Wanjia Li and Zongxiang Yue and Jinbao Huang and Tingjian Wang and Le Gu and Chuanwei Zhang},
title = {Phase-field analysis on the interfacial damage behavior of high-speed bearings under impact-sliding conditions},
year = {2026},
journal = {Friction},
keywords = {M50 steel, impact-sliding, thermal partition, damage, phase-field},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/FRICT.2026.9441331},
doi = {10.26599/FRICT.2026.9441331},
abstract = {Transient impact-sliding contacts between the cage and the guiding ring under starved lubrication severely threaten the structural reliability of high-speed aero-engine main bearings. Traditional analytical and implicit finite element methods struggle to capture the highly nonlinear competitive failure mechanisms at this dual-body interface due to severe convergence bottlenecks and non-realistic single-body simplifications. In this study, a novel, fully coupled thermo-elasto-plastic phase-field fracture framework is proposed to systematically investigate the asymmetric damage evolution between an M50 steel ring and an AISI 4340 steel cage. The simulation results reveal a profound synergistic coupling effect between the normal impact and tangential sliding velocities. Furthermore, a fundamental disparity in spatial damage morphology is observed: the high-hardness M50 ring exhibits surface-initiated, elastic-dominated incipient micro-damage localization, whereas the tougher 4340 cage accommodates kinetic energy through subsurface-initiated, volumetric, thermo-elasto-plastic flow. Crucially, an asymmetric competitive degradation mechanism governed by an interfacial thermal partition coefficient is uncovered. By purposefully channeling a substantial fraction of the frictional heat into the 4340 cage, the cage undergoes catastrophic thermal softening and massive yielding, autonomously acting as a thermodynamic sacrificial buffer. This mechanism dynamically absorbs the destructive impact energy, physically shielding the core M50 ring from severe fatigue fracture. The extracted damage transition phase diagram provides a robust, physics-based criterion for the advanced surface engineering and thermal management of aerospace bearings.}
}