Selective laser melting (SLM), as a revolutionary technology for metal manufacturing, attracts tremendous attention because it can produce complex components to benefit the customised production. Here we report that additively manufactured 304L austenitic stainless steel (SS) with low stacking fault energy (SFE) show superior fatigue resistance than its conventional counterparts due to the unique heterogeneous microstructure despite containing relatively high porosity. A series of detailed microstructural characterisations were applied to systematically disclose the fatigue enhancement mechanism of additively manufactured parts. Direct evidence is offered to show the obvious progressive work hardening and strain rate hardening caused by the heterogeneous microstructure during cyclic deformation, thus enhancing the fatigue crack initiation resistance. The microstructural results reveal that the cellular substructure plays a decisive role in regulating the dislocation motion during cyclic deformation, resulting in the intergranular fatigue cracking along HAGBs rather than twin boundaries. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

In this paper, a theoretical model is proposed to analyze the friction effect on the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life of the angular contact ball bearing (ACBB). Firstly, the quasi-static model without race control hypothesis is introduced to study the load characteristics of the ACBB under different loading conditions. Then, the friction coefficient is quantitatively calculated by analyzing the relation between the gyroscopic torque and the sphere-race contact load. The effects of the axial load, radial load, torque load and rotating speeds on the friction coefficient, the maximum value of the sub-surface von Mises stress (SSVS) and the maximum peak-peak value of the sub-surface shear stress (SSSS) are subsequently investigated. The results show that they can significantly affect the friction coefficient and further influence the stress field beneath the contact surface. Further studies illustrate that the friction coefficient cannot affect the maximum peak-peak value of the SSSS but can change the distribution of the SSVS field. The relative RCF life of the sphere-race contact is calculated and the published studies confirm the accuracy of the calculation.

The impeller is the core component of the centrifugal compressor. Aiming to solve problems related to a large mass, high-energy consumption, and large vibration of the existing centrifugal impeller, a semi-open supersonic centrifugal impeller provided by Krain et al. was redesigned in this paper. The redesign was based on Tsai–Wu failure theory and the two-way fluid–structure coupling method. First, the geometric and numerical models were established using the geometric data found in the literature. Then, the established geometric and numerical models were verified through experimental data. Finally, the impeller was optimized from three aspects: material lightweight, composite material layering, and tip clearance. The results have shown that following the optimization, the maximum impeller stress was reduced by 48.77% when compared to the traditional 17-4PH material impeller. The maximum vibration deformation was reduced by 60.4%, as well as the resonance probability. The pressure ratio was increased by 0.8%, and the pressure and velocity reverse gradient trend near the blade tip were significantly reduced, while the flow field was more stable. The research results presented in this paper hence provide a basis for the application of composite materials in centrifugal impellers.

The axial piston pump (APP) is the core power component of hydraulic systems. Its friction pair wear can cause the degradation of piston pump performance until the function is completely lost or the service life is terminated. The slipper pair, prone to wear failure, is selected as the research object in this paper. The prediction method for the eccentric wear of the slipper pair is established, and the gradual change rules of the performance with wear accumulation are explored. The micro-surface rough peak contact and the stress state of the slipper pair are analyzed, and the mixed lubrication model of the slipper pair is established based on the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model of the slipper pair. Grid discretization of a sealing belt of the slipper pair is carried out based on two-body abrasive wear and Archard adhesive wear models to improve the prediction method for eccentric wear of the slipper pair. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a surface morphology analysis of the worn slipper. The results showed that the wear depth and wear width of the outer edge of the slipper bottom surface are positively correlated with the oil discharge pressure and the inclination angle of the swashplate, and negatively correlated with the rotational speed and the dynamic oil viscosity. The outer edge of the slipper is wedged after eccentric wear, and the hydrodynamic effect of the lubricating oil film of the slipper pair is enhanced. Hence, proper wear can improve the lubrication performance of the slipper pair.

On the basis of the stress–strength model of the ball bearing with random parameters, the reliability sensitivity of the raceway strength is examined. The basic parameters are regarded as random variables subject to normal distribution. The Latin hypercube sampling method is adopted to obtain the samples, which are brought into the bearing model to obtain the corresponding maximum orthogonal shear stress. The explicit expression of shear stress was obtained by genetic algorithm-back propagation neural network fitting, and the limit-state equation is established in combination with the yield limit of bearing materials. First, this study analyzes the sensitivity of the maximum shear stress with respect to various parameters and obtains the effect of parameters on shear stress at various rotational speeds. Then, based on the stress–strength state equation, the strength reliability is obtained by using the improved first-order second-moment method, which is verified by Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, the reliability sensitivity with respect to the mean and standard variance of random variables is analyzed. This research can provide theoretical guidance for the design, production, and use of bearings.