Abstract
Railways can transport cargo and persons a great distance. The combination of high axle loads, and the rigid wheels and rails made of steel results in high stresses at the wheel-rail contact. These high stresses cause rolling contact fatigue. To prevent and to forecast the rolling contact fatigue, the knowledge of the stresses and their effect on the local damage are important. One possible way to achieve results of the stresses is based on a finite element analysis. The calculation of the rolling contact fatigue is conducted subsequently. This paper will present one possibility to implement the damage calculation into a finite element software and use the post-processing to enable a fast assessment of rolling contact fatigue on the surface and the adjacent volume of a rail.
Highlights
An advantage of the railway is the possibility to transport heavy loads overland
The axle load in combination with dynamic forces during the service leads to high stresses in the contact patch between the wheel and rail
2.0 METHODOLOGY First, a simple overview of the finite element analysis (FEA) model is shown including the software used for the simulation, the boundary conditions, and some details about the simulation model
Summary
An advantage of the railway is the possibility to transport heavy loads overland. In Austria, the axle load of a wagon is limited to 22.5t [1]. This load is carried by the train wheels which are rolling on the rails. The axle load in combination with dynamic forces during the service leads to high stresses in the contact patch between the wheel and rail. Knowledge of the strains and stresses is important. The resultant rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is one of the reasons of damage at railway rails [2,3]
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