Fatigue strength evaluation of scale railway axle with surface defect considering mean stress effect

Abstract

In order to evaluate the notch fatigue strength of transition groove in railway axle, a series of fatigue tests were conducted on small specimens and press-fitted axles containing surface defects. Based on the experimental and finite element (FE) analyses, a novel method considering mean stress effect was proposed to evaluate the fatigue strength of scale railway axle with surface defect. It is found that press-fitted axles exhibit significantly lower notch fatigue strength than small specimens. Furthermore, the theory of critical distance (TCD) provides a good correlation between the notch fatigue strength of small specimens and experimental results. FE analyses revealed that the press-fitting reduces the fatigue strength of the transition groove through increasing stress concentration and introducing a mean tensile stress that decreases with an increase in the applied loading. To account for the mean stress effect, the axial stress at the groove is corrected as an equivalent stress amplitude at R = -1 based on Goodman relation. Through the combination of TCD and Goodman relation, an estimated fatigue strength with an error of less than 11 % can be achieved for the scale railway axle with surface defect.