Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and wear caused by rolling contact between the wheel and rail are inevitable problems in railway systems. An increase in axle load or the slip ratio causes excessive wear. However, RCF and wear do not act independently, but one influences the other. Wheel and rail materials and manufacturing quality have a considerable influence on the formation of RCF and the ensuing wear. Therefore, the mechanical properties of the wheel and rail are important factors for reducing RCF and wear on the contact surface. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of the wheel and rail used in the Korean industry for high speed trains and conventional rails with respect to their fatigue and fracture behavior. A series of tests such as uniaxial tensile tests, fracture toughness tests, and fatigue crack growth tests were carried out at both room temperature and low temperatures.

Rolling contact fatigue and wear on rails are inevitable in railway operations due to excessive wheel–rail contact stress. The wear is influenced by vehicle speed, contact pressure, environmental conditions, and many other factors. Speeding on a curved track causes many problems such as wear on the gauge of the rail and rolling contact fatigue. Managing environmental conditions can reduce problems on the wheel and rail interface. In this study, the wear characteristics of wheel and rail materials were investigated by twin-disc testing using various parameters. The results of the wear test indicated that the wear rate under dry conditions was larger than that under wet conditions. We found that contact fatigue damage occurred on the rail in dry conditions, however, the surface of the specimen under water remained smooth. Also, the friction coefficient in dry conditions was larger than in wet conditions.

Reduction of welding residual stress is very important in the railway industry, but calculating its distribution in structures is difficult because welding residual stress formation is influenced by various parameters. In this study, we developed a finite element model for simulating the repair welding process to recover a surface damaged rail, and conducted a series of parametric studies while varying the cooling rate and the duration of post weld heat treatment (PWHT) to find the best conditions for reducing welding residual stress level. This paper presents a three-dimensional model of the repair welding process considering the phase transformation effect implemented by the ABAQUS user subroutine, and the results of parametric studies with various cooling rates and PWHT durations. We found that heat treatment significantly reduced the residual stress on the upper rail by about 170 ㎫.

There is a large interest to find reliable and automatic methods for crack detection and quantification in the railway bogie frame. The non-destructive inspection of railway bogie frame has been performed by ultrasonic and magnetic particle testing in general inspection. The magnetic particle method has been utilized in the defect inspection of the bogie frame but the grinding process is required before inspection and the dust is developed resulting from the processing. The objective of this paper is to apply the inspection method of bogie frame using infra-red thermography. The infra-red thermography system using the excitation of eddy current was performed for the defect evaluation of weld specimen inserted artificial defects. The result shows that the infra-red thermography method can detect the surface and inner defects in weld specimen for bogie frame.

Conventionally, to measure derailment coefficient of a railway wheel, strain gauges for lateral force measurement are attached to both side of the wheel. But narrow gap between railway wheel and traction motor makes it difficult to attache the strain gauges at the inner side of wheel. In this study, to overcome the hard accessibility to the strain gauge points by narrow gap, a new Wheatstone bridge connection method is presented by attaching all the strain gauges at the outer side of wheel with a new bridge connection. We evaluate the running safety of railway vehicles in accordance with railway safety regulations. The experimental results obtained shows higher sensitivity than conventional methods and the derailment coefficient measurement procedure becomes simpler.

Prediction of a minimum crack size for growth, which is defined as a crack size that grows fast enough to keep ahead of its removal by contact wear and periodic grinding, is the most demanding work to prevent rail from fatigue failure and develop cost effective railway maintenance strategy. In this study, we investigated the wheel load increment due to a rail defect during a train ran over it, and its effect on the minimum crack size for growth. For this purpose, we developed simulation software based on the Fletcher and Kapoor’s “2.5D” model and measured wheel load increment during a train passed over a defect. A maximum contact pressure and contact patch size were calculated by 3D FEM and crack growth analyses were performed by varying two of dominant contact contributors; surface friction coefficient(0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) and crack aspect ratio. The minimum crack sizes for growth were calculated from 0.29 to 1.44㎜ depending on the contact conditions. They were decreasing with increasing surface friction coefficient and decreasing with crack aspect ratio(a/b).