Brinelling

Brinelling refers to a material surface failure caused by contact stress that exceeds the material limit. This failure is caused by just one application of a load great enough to exceed the material limit. The result is a permanent dent or "brinell" mark. It is a common cause of roller bearing failures, and loss of preload in bolted joints when a hardened washer is not used. Engineers can use the Brinell hardness of materials in their calculations to avoid this mode of failure. A rolling element bearing's static load rating is defined to avoid this failure type.

False brinelling is damage caused by fretting, with or without corrosion, that causes imprints that look similar to brinelling, but are caused by a different mechanism. Brinell damage is characterized by permanent material deformation (without loss of material) and occurs during one load event, whereas false brinelling is characterized by material wear or removal and occurs over an extended time from vibration and light loads.