(E) Effect of oxide inclusions on fatigue failure

For decades, inclusions have been associated with the general problem of fatigue failure in steels. However, oxide inclusions as a class are most closely related to certain specific fatigue processes, namely, surface and subsurface crack nucleation during uniaxial cycling of smooth specimens, and to the nucleation of subsurface fatigue cracks in bearing steels under conditions of cyclic rolling contact. In this paper the author presents a survey of the role of oxide inclusions within this context.