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Fracture Mechanics For Rail Crack Formation; Design of a Numerical Model to Predict Rolling Contact Fatigue on Rails

Slagter, Kasper (2024) Fracture Mechanics For Rail Crack Formation; Design of a Numerical Model to Predict Rolling Contact Fatigue on Rails.

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Abstract:Train rails are susceptible to surface damage and surface defects such as wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF). Rails should be maintained before these critical defects arise. The Whole Life Rail Model (WLRM) is a model that can be used as a tool to predict rail damage based on the wear number for a certain situation. The WLRM is formed by a function for wear and RCF, which together show the Damage Index, a theoretical measure indicating rail damage. Because the WLRM is based on experimental field results, it was tried to design a numerical model that can describe the RCF function of the WLRM without the need of field results. an XFEM model was used to obtain crack growth rates. These could be used to determine the Damage Index for certain situations. These Damage Indices were used to reconstruct the RCF curve of the existing WLRM. Results for various situations also showed the influence of different parameters, such as rail radius, train speed, or friction coefficient. It was shown that variation in these parameters changed the RCF curve. This made setting up a single RCF function for a theoretical case difficult. It is however shown that calculation of the Damage Index could be used to determine the dominant failure mechanism and show in which damage regime the selected case can be placed.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:52 mechanical engineering
Programme:Mechanical Engineering MSc (60439)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/104394
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