“…In that regard, especially in the past decade, a lot of research interest was dedicated to the impact of the loading protocol and the contact profile geometry on crack initiation, as these are influence factors that can be controlled more or less easily in design and construction of fretting contacts. With respect to the loading protocol, the influences of out-of-phase loading [10] and phase difference ( [11,12]) (however, mainly with focus on a phase difference between bulk stresses and contact loads), as well as more complex cyclic loading paths ( [13,14]), were studied. On the other hand, regarding the influence of the surface geometry on crack initiation, the overall contact geometry ( [15,16]) and macroscopically worn profiles [17], as well as the surface microgeometry [18], surface pit treatment [19] and machined surface texture [20] have been considered.…”