Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a numerical approach based on a steady‐state algorithm to predict the rolling contact fatigue crack initiation in railway wheels in practical conditions. This work suggests taking into account the cyclic hardening of the wheel's material and one of its originality is to conduct a complete numerical approach whatever the loading level. The main stages are the characterization and modelling of the material behaviour, the determination of the stress–strain fields using a numerical steady‐state method and the application of a high cycle fatigue criterion. Computations were made with the Abaqus FE commercial software. Three cases are studied: rolling with or without sliding and skating. The numerical results give several types of mechanical responses: elastic or plastic shakedown. Otherwise, the results show that the location where the shear stress is maximal is not the same as where the risk of crack is the highest.
Highlights
Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is a damage phenomenon that appears in rails and wheels due to overloading materials
A methodology for analyzing of the risk for RCF of railway wheels taking into account the cyclic behaviour of material has been proposed
The different steps of this approach are the following: (1) choice of a cyclic mechanical constitutive law and identification of its associated parameters, (2) determination of the mechanical responses in the wheel based on the use of the steady-state method, and (3) choice and application of a fatigue criterion
Summary
Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is a damage phenomenon that appears in rails and wheels due to overloading materials. The determination and the evaluation of this stress field is not an easy task because of the contact geometry between the wheel and the rail which is initially unknown. The analysis is generally divided into two parts: stress can be evaluated analytically if elastic conditions are assumed; the contact patch is generally replaced by a number of concentrated forces.[5] FE simulations can be conducted. In these cases, elastic-plastic simulations can be performed and the full problem including the determination of both contact and sub-surface stress can be determined.[6,7]
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