4.7 Article

Numerical predictions of crack growth direction in a railhead under contact, bending and thermal loads

Journal

ENGINEERING FRACTURE MECHANICS
Volume 261, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2021.108218

Keywords

Rolling contact fatigue; Crack growth direction; Crack propagation; Vector crack tip displacement

Categories

Funding

  1. European Union [826255, 101012456]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study examines the influence of different operational loading scenarios on the predicted crack growth direction for a propagating inclined railhead crack through 2D finite element simulations. It is found that a combination of thermal and contact loads results in a gradual divergence of the crack path from transverse growth to shallow growth, while a combination of bending and contact loads causes a discrete jump in the crack direction.
The effect of different operational loading scenarios on predicted crack growth direction for a propagating inclined railhead crack is assessed by 2D finite element simulations. Studied load scenarios include a moving Hertzian contact load, a temperature drop, rail bending due to a passing wheelset, and combinations thereof. The direction of the unbiased crack propagation is predicted using an accumulative vector crack tip displacement criterion. The numerical model is validated for the individual load scenarios. Restraints due to crack face locking are imposed by a threshold parameter, whose influence is also assessed. For combinations of thermal and contact loads, the predicted crack path is found to diverge gradually from transverse growth, corresponding to pure thermal loading, to shallow growth, corresponding to a pure contact load. For combined bending and contact loading, there is a discrete jump in the predicted crack direction as the contact load increased while the bending load is kept constant. These results are well aligned with empirical experience.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available