Study on the fatigue crack initiation life in rail wheel contact

철도차량용 휠과 레일의 피로균열시작 수명에 관한 연구

In this study, contact fatigue in wheel-rail contact is simulated. It is necessary to calculate contact stress and subsurface stresses accurately to predict fatigue behavior. Contact stresses are obtained by contact analysis of semi-infinite solid based on influence function and subsurface stress field obtained by using rectangular patch solutions. Based on these stress values, several multiaxial high-cycle fatigue criteria are used and the critical loads corresponding to fatigue limits are calculated. The simulation results show that the critical load is decreasing rapidly and the site of crack initiation also moves rapidly to the surface from the subsurface when friction coefficient exceeds a specific value for all of three fatigue criteria.