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The purpose of this study is to devise a bending fatigue strength evaluation method that can be widely used for any machine component under the consideration that bending fatigue breakage depends on the initiation of a surface fatigue crack, namely, the conditions for the initiation of a fatigue crack can be used as the criteria for bending fatigue strength design. The specially designed and manufactured three-point bending specimens with crowned round notches are used in bending fatigue experiments. The obtained bending fatigue strengths are expressed as the maximum actual stress at the critical point, which increases with decreasing notch radius. Considering the effects of the stress distribution on the bending fatigue strength, we present a method for estimating the tension fatigue strength of a smooth specimen, which is shape-independent fatigue strength and can be applied to bending fatigue strength design for machine components with complex geometries.

Pulse diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine is said to be able to detect not only illness but also decline of health in the patients from tactile sense of the pulse in the radial artery at the wrists. This diagnosis, however, is not supported by concrete scientific evidence. The authors have proposed a non-linear spring model of subcutaneous tissue on the radial artery and one-dimensional arterial blood flow model in an arm for the purpose of scientific verification of the pulse diagnosis. They performed, in the former study, a numerical experiment with this mathematical model in which the radial artery was indented in a stepwise manner by a pressure sensor, which extract the fundamental mechanism of the pulse diagnosis, to validate the subcutaneous tissue model and to find the appropriate coefficient to fit the experimental result. They investigated, in this research, contribution of parameters of supply pressure of the blood and tube law of the artery on the change in the pressure pulse waves with the indentation steps with respect to mean value Poav and amplitude ΔPo of the pressure. It was shown that mean supply pressure affects both Poav and ΔPo, while amplitude of the supply pressure affects ΔPo. It was also shown that profile of ΔPo vs. distance of the indentation changes drastically as the artery becomes hard. Lastly, it was examined to reproduce the experimentally obtained pressure pulse waves during the indentation in their former work with the mathematical model by adjusting the parameters. The result showed better agreement than the former result, but it implied that ulnar artery had to be taken into consideration for quantitative fitting of the pulse waves to the range where the radial artery was nearly flattened by the indentation.

To get high performance, downsizing and weight saving of the power transmission systems, the improvement of machine elements has been required. In this study, case-carburized gear materials for a high load-carrying capacity were developed. Low-alloyed steels with 1%Cr-0.2%Mo, 1%Cr-0.2%Mo-1%Si and 1%Cr-0.2%Mo-2%Ni (Cr-Mo steel, Cr-Mo-Si steel and Cr-Mo-Ni steel) were melted in a hypoxia vacuum. Test rollers were made of the developed steels, and they were carburized (Type A and Type B), hardened and tempered. Heating retention tests were carried out to investigate the softening behavior of hardness at high heating temperatures in the case of the developed steels. Roller tests were conducted under the rolling-sliding contact and high-load conditions to study the surface fatigue of the developed steels. From the obtained test results, it was found that the softening behavior of surface hardness at high temperatures in the cases of Cr-Mo-Si steel (Type A) and Cr-Mo-Ni steel (Type B) is lower than that in the cases of Cr-Mo steel (Type A) and Cr-Mo steel (Type B). In the cases of Cr-Mo-Si steel (A) and Cr-Mo-Ni steel (B), micro- and small-pitting area ratios are smaller and large-pitting life is longer than those in the cases of Cr-Mo steel(A) and Cr-Mo steel(B) under the same carburizing treatment method and high-load conditions. Furthermore, the relationship between the softening behavior of surface hardness on the heating pattern and the surface fatigue on the rolling-sliding contact of the developed alloy steels was clarified.

To develop case-carburized gears with high loading capacity, the surface durability of a developed Cr-Mo-Si steel (with 1 mass% Si added in the chemical composition) was studied. Initially, the fatigue tests of case-carburized Cr-Mo-Si steel and Cr-Mo steel melted in a hypoxia vacuum were carried out using a two-roller contact fatigue tester. Next, the changes in the surface failure, surface roughness and sectional hardness distribution of the test rollers were examined using a scanning electron microscope, a surface roughness measuring instrument and a penetrometer, respectively. In the case of Cr-Mo-Si steel test rollers under rolling-sliding contact, the following results are obtained in comparison with Cr-Mo steel test rollers: micro pitting area ratio is lower under a medium load, the pits do not occur under a heavy load, and the value of surface variation is lower. Therefore, it is clear that the developed Cr-Mo-Si steel can be applied to case-carburized gear materials under a heavy load.