Study of fatigue crack initiation location of wheel and rail under rolling contact using finite element method

Abstract

The rail transit system is widely used for freight and passenger transportation. Due to the fact that its economic worthiness and high safety mode. Maintenance and damage prevention of wheel and rail are important factors affecting the safety of the system. The previous studies show that the most damage of wheel and rail is fatigue cracking, which is caused by the contact stress resulting from wheel and rail interaction. This article presents the study of the fatigue crack initiation location of wheel and rail under rolling contact at the wheel speed of 80 km/h using Finite Element Method (FEM). The three dimensional finite element models were created using the UIC60E1 wheel profile and BS100 rail profile. The Dang Van criteria was applied to analyse the fatigue crack initiation location in case of the wheel's position was changed along the rail lateral direction while the rail inclination angle was also varied at 0, 1/40, 1/30 and 1/20, respectively. The analysing results show that the fatigue crack initiation, determined by the Dang Van stress ratio, tends to increase when the wheel is moved from gauge side to field side. Additionally, the fatigue crack damage is likely to decrease when the rail inclination increases up to the inclination of 1/30 and the fatigue crack initiation locations were found underneath the wheel and rail surfaces. The obtained result can be a primary guideline for maintenance planning.