Patent ID: 7577555

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining damage of a mechanical element composed of rolling elements and a stationary member or a component part composed of more than two rolling elements for establishing a rolling contact, the method comprising steps of: representing factors of the mechanical element with magnitudes of a shear strain and a shear strain rate occurring in the contact element resulting from an external or internal stress; providing discrimination values obtained from material characteristics of the rolling element and a loading method; comparing the magnitudes of the shear strain and the shear strain rate to the discrimination values so as to judge mechanical damage patterns of the mechanical element; and outputting, as information indicating the damage of the mechanical element, information indicating the judged damage patterns using the computer, wherein the discrimination values include five values related to a yield point shear strain, an adiabatic shear deformation limit strain, an adiabatic shear deformation limit strain rate, a breakdown-point shear strain, and an impact occurrence strain rate of the loading method for making judgment on the mechanical damage patterns of the mechanical element.