Abstract: A series of experiments on the fretting wear of steel wires are performed on self-made fretting wear test rig. The worn wires after fretting tests are put into fatigue test at different stress ratio and different stress amplitude on the servo-fatigue test machine. The research results demonstrate that the fretting wear depth of the steel wires increase with the increasing fretting cycles and contact loads. The fretting worn notch is the source of crack initiation because of stress concentration, which decrease the fatigue life of steel wires. The fatigue life of the steel wires with fretted damage is inverse proportional to the wear depth. The fretting fatigue mechanisms are analyzed through SEM morphologies of fracture sections, which indicate that fatigue are divided into crack initiation, crack propagation and crack break corresponding to different fatigue phases.

Key words: Fracture section, Fatigue life, Fretting wear, Steel wire, Dynamic micro-elastohydrodynamic lubrication, Finite line contact, Surface defect, Cylindrical roller