• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.577-582
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• 2010

The importance of maintenance of rail surface defects is increasing according to the KTX operation. That is because during high speed operation of rolling stocks, rail surface defects shorten fatigue life of rail, accelerate track degradation and deteriorate ride comfort. Rail grinding has been applied for effective rail maintenance in Kyeong-Bu HS line. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of rail grinding in term of rail fatigue life. To this end, the stresses of the rail are measured under KTX running and the equivalent stress range is calculated by RMC after the frequency analysis done with rainflow counting method. Also, The Modified Miner's rule is applied to predict the fatigue life of ground rail. The result of the analysis shows that the fatigue life of ground rail is increased by 15%.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.1191-1198
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• 2015

In this study, vehicle/track interaction analysis by the Saemaul powered vehicle was carried out. The prediction equation for the bending stress of rail was estimated using the rail bending stress by the rail surface irregularities at welds. Also, the fatigue analysis using a S-N curve of welds in the conventional railway was carried out. We estimated the fatigue life of CWR by the fracture probability. By the rail grinding, the fatigue life of CWR was evaluated in consideration to reduce the rail bending stress through removing the rail surface irregularities. Therefore, it presented the fatigue life of CWR according to the rail grinding execution plan in the conventional railway.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.64-71
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• 2010

It is suggested that the service life of the continuous welded rail(CWR) is estimated by the relationship between the rail surface irregularity according to the accumulated passing tonnage and bending fatigue of welded part in CWR. In this study, based on the results of bending fatigue tests of rail and results of measuring tests in situ of rail bending stress, this study estimated the bending fatigue life of welded rail in concrete track, adopting a Haibach's rule. The bending fatigue life of CWR considered the rail surface irregularity, train speed and the S-N curve by types of rail welding. In addition, this study estimated it for the fracture probability 1%, 0.1%, 0.01%. Therefore, this study proposed bending fatigue life of CWR in concrete track.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.201-207
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• 2010

The replacement criterion of rail by accumulated passing tonnage was estimated by the bending fatigue life of rail. In order to estimate the bending fatigue life, it is basically needed to analyze bending fatigue behavior on the rail. In this study, the bending fatigue test were performed for 50kg/m and 60kg/m rails, and test specimens were distinguished by new and used rails and by the types of welded rail such as base material, thermite weld, and gas pressure weld. Also, this study analyzed the fractured surface, the position of initial crack and the bending fatigue behavior (S-N curve). Therefore, it evaluated S-N curve for welded rails according to the fracture probability. The result from this study might be used essential data in order to estimate the bending fatigue life of rail by the accumulated passing tonnage.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.649-657
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• 2017

In this study, fatigue testing was carried out for long-term use of rail according to track type. From S-N curves for 50%~0.01% failure probability, the fatigue life of the long-term use rail for each track type was derived using the weight probability analysis technique on the experimental data. Because the rails used in the fatigue test have different cumulative tonnages, the number of repetitions was modified by averaging the cumulative tonnage. In addition, the bending stresses of rail bottoms, considering rail surface irregularities, track support stiffnesses and train speeds, were evaluated using the predicted rail bending stresses derived from existing studies. As a result, for rail fatigue life evaluation, the fatigue life of rail on the ballast track was found to be more than 200 million tons higher than the standard value for rail replacement. Also, the fatigue life of rail on concrete track is more than 300 million tons higher than that on ballast track. The Haibach rule is adaptable for the fatigue life evaluation of rail for stress range under fatigue limit.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2014

In this study, fatigue tests on existing continuous welded rail (CWR) on a concrete track were carried out. Based on the test results, a S-N curve expressing the remaining life of the CWR at a fracture probability of 50% was obtained using weighted probit analysis suitable for small-sample fatigue data sets. As rails had different histories in terms of accumulated passing tonnage, the test data were corrected to average out the accumulated passing tonnage. The remaining service life for the CWR on the concrete track in an urban railway was estimated using the prediction equation for the bending stress of rail developed in the past to estimate rail base bending stress and taking the surface irregularities into consideration. Estimating the remaining service life of the CWR in an urban railway showed that the rail replacement period could be extended over 200MGT. In addition, comparing the concrete track to the ballast track, the fatigue life of rail was analyzed as approximately 300MGT higher than. Therefore, the rail replacement criteria needs to distinguish between the ballast track and the concrete track, and not the criteria needs to be changed as a target for the maintenance, although it is necessary to remove longitudinal rail surface irregularities at welds by grinding.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.821-831
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• 2013

As a result of recent research, it is reported that the periodic replacements criterion of rails is able to extend as grinding rail surface and using the continuous welded rail (CWR). In this study, we carried out fatigue tests on existing laid rails. Based on the test results, an S-N curve expressing the remaining life of laid rails at a fracture probability of 50% was obtained using weighted probit analysis suitable for small-sample fatigue data sets. As rails used for testing had different histories in terms of accumulated tonnage, the test data were corrected to average out the accumulated tonnage. We estimated the remaining service lives for laid rails on the urban railway using equations developed in the past to estimate rail base bending stress and that surface irregularities into consideration. Therefore, estimating the remaining service life of laid rails showed that the rail replacement period could be extended over 200 MGT, although it is necessary to remove longitudinal rail surface irregularities at welds by grinding. Also, the fatigue test results under fatigue limit, Haibach's rule appling half slope of S-N curve under the fatigue limit was considered more reasonable than modified Miner's rule for estimating rail fatigue life.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.396-404
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• 2009

With developing the next generation high speed railway, there need to be plans to make sure of running safety though researchs on the crack and break of rail by rolling contact fatigue. Therefore, this study performed the parametric analysis effecting on the fatigue life of rail using simplified equations. It analyzed the internal stress of rail according to the track quality, train velocity, wheel radius, track stiffness, sleeper space, wheel load. For the more, via the finite element method, it analyzed shear force on the rail head which could be changed by the early length of crack, angle of crack and temperature. As a result, this study continued the main parameter effecting on the fatigue life of rail.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.658-667
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• 2017

Rail is the main track component, playing the most important role in safe railways. For the sake of safety, it is strictly required to secure reliability against fatigue and destruction of rail. In this paper, by field measurement on concrete track, it is confirmed that the rail surface roughness and rail bending stress are linearly correlated with each other; the bending stress of rail can be presented as a function of train speed, track support stiffness, and rail surface roughness. The fatigue life of rail can be estimated by deriving the S-N curve through the fatigue test.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.6D
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• pp.663-671
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• 2012

The demand of CWR is rapidly increasing because of the adaptation of concrete track, the need for rapid and comfortable ride, and the reduction of maintenance cost. Because of short applying period of the concrete track, there is not a case of CWR fracture in Korea caused by repeated load of the train, which makes it difficult to calculate replacement period of rail based on rail fatigue life using an actual field data. This study thus inspected the bending stress at rail bottom through analyzing the vehicle/track interaction, performed multiple regression analysis on the data, deducted the bending stress prediction equations by the speed and the surface irregularity. Finally, the fatigue life of CWR on the concrete track was predicted based on the prediction equations for bending stress at rail bottom.