Investigation of rail damage considering impact at a welded joint under wet condition
Industrial Lubrication and Tribology
ISSN: 0036-8792
Article publication date: 21 December 2023
Issue publication date: 16 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a transient wheel–rail rolling contact model to primarily investigate the rail damage under wet condition when the train passes through the welded joints.
Design/methodology/approach
The impact force induced by welded joints is obtained through vehicle–track coupling dynamics. The normal and tangential wheel–rail contact pressures were solved by elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) theory and simplified third-body layer theory, respectively. Then, the obtained tangential pressure and normal pressure were applied to the finite element model as moving loads, simulating cyclic loading. Finally, the shakedown map and critical plane method were used to predict rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and the initiation of fatigue cracks.
Findings
The results indicate that RCF will occur and fatigue cracks are more prone to appear on the subsurface of the rail, specifically around 2.7 mm below the rail surface in the vicinity of the welded joint and its heat-affected zone.
Originality/value
The cosimulation of numerical model and finite element model was implemented. The influence of surface roughness and fluids was considered. In this model, the normal and tangential wheel–rail contact pressure, the stress and strain and the rail fatigue cracks were obtained under a rail-welded joint excitation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The present work has been supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 52372391).
Declaration of competing interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Citation
Wang, Z., Wu, B., Huang, J., Yang, Y. and Xiao, G. (2024), "Investigation of rail damage considering impact at a welded joint under wet condition", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 76 No. 1, pp. 122-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILT-09-2023-0309
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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