1. The document discusses wheel-rail contact and rail fracture in railway systems. It covers topics such as contact stresses between wheels and rails, heat generation during braking, damage mechanisms like squats and corrugations, and rail fracture due to rolling contact fatigue and bending/shear stresses.
2. Rolling contact fatigue can cause small, shallow cracks or "headchecks" near the rail surface, usually at gauge corners. Once initiated, cracks can further grow due to bending and shear stresses in the rail.
3. Proper rail grinding can help remove defects like squats, corrugations, and small cracks before they become too large and compromise rail integrity. Maintaining good wheel and rail profiles is
1. The document discusses wheel-rail contact and rail fracture in railway systems. It covers topics such as contact stresses between wheels and rails, heat generation during braking, damage mechanisms like squats and corrugations, and rail fracture due to rolling contact fatigue and bending/shear stresses.
2. Rolling contact fatigue can cause small, shallow cracks or "headchecks" near the rail surface, usually at gauge corners. Once initiated, cracks can further grow due to bending and shear stresses in the rail.
3. Proper rail grinding can help remove defects like squats, corrugations, and small cracks before they become too large and compromise rail integrity. Maintaining good wheel and rail profiles is
1. The document discusses wheel-rail contact and rail fracture in railway systems. It covers topics such as contact stresses between wheels and rails, heat generation during braking, damage mechanisms like squats and corrugations, and rail fracture due to rolling contact fatigue and bending/shear stresses.
2. Rolling contact fatigue can cause small, shallow cracks or "headchecks" near the rail surface, usually at gauge corners. Once initiated, cracks can further grow due to bending and shear stresses in the rail.
3. Proper rail grinding can help remove defects like squats, corrugations, and small cracks before they become too large and compromise rail integrity. Maintaining good wheel and rail profiles is
1. The document discusses wheel-rail contact and rail fracture in railway systems. It covers topics such as contact stresses between wheels and rails, heat generation during braking, damage mechanisms like squats and corrugations, and rail fracture due to rolling contact fatigue and bending/shear stresses.
2. Rolling contact fatigue can cause small, shallow cracks or "headchecks" near the rail surface, usually at gauge corners. Once initiated, cracks can further grow due to bending and shear stresses in the rail.
3. Proper rail grinding can help remove defects like squats, corrugations, and small cracks before they become too large and compromise rail integrity. Maintaining good wheel and rail profiles is
1. Rails Cross-section: 60-90cm2 2nd Moment of Area: 2000-4000cm4 Material: Head Hardened Steel Pearlitic (tough; common) Web 145-175mm Austenitic (high C and Mn) Foot Bainitic (fine grained)
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2. Contact Stresses The intersection of a line (the rail) and a circle (the wheel) is a point, with zero area.
Since a load of well over 10 Tonnes is
often transmitted through the wheel, this would cause an INFINITE stress at the contact.
Clearly this would be too much for
the steel, so it has to deform.
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2. Contact Stresses Typical stress-strain relationship for steel Stress Infinite stress deformation Deformation e.g. 450MPa increased contact area Increased contact area reduced stress
e.g. 2.1 10-3 Strain
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2. Contact Stresses Deformation zone E = 210GPa; = 0.3 P wheel radius = 400mm load on wheel = 10Tonnes r Wheel L L = width of loaded area. Rail
• Contact occurs over a circular area of wheel
• Stress () over the contact is constant (!!) • L is much less than the thickness of the rail head • There is a zone of deformation of depth L Therefore: ≈ strain × L = L / E 7 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
2. Contact Stresses Deformation zone
P E = 210GPa; = 0.3 r Wheel L Rail
≈ L/E
Alternatively use Boussinesq equation for deformation of
a uniformly loaded half space: ≈ L (1 – 2)/ E Very similar 8 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
2. Contact Stresses Deformation zone
P E = 210GPa; = 0.3 r Wheel L Rail
≈ L (1 – 2)/ E Intersecting chords: 2 (2r – 2) = L/2 L/2 ≈ 0.5 (L2/4) / 2 r Combine: 0.5 (L2/4) / 2 r = [P / ( L2/4)] . L (1 - 2) / E L3 / 64 = P r (1 - 2) / E 9 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
2. Contact Stresses Deformation zone
P E = 210GPa; = 0.3 r Wheel L Rail
L3 / 64 = P r (1 - 2) / E Say P = 10T; r = 0.4m: L = 15.13mm At contact: = P / ( L2/4) = 546MPa And this is just an average; the maximum may exceed yield 10 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Damage If the stress exceeds yield, the steel will (i) ‘FAIL’ (for a fraction of a millisecond!). Two effects: Flow Wear Over large numbers of wheel applications, the steel will slowly deform and wear away to fit the shape of the wheel. The same thing will also happen on the wheel face. 11 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Damage (ii) Squats: regions where the steel has deformed significantly
Solution: Grind them off
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Damage (iii) Corrugations: differential wear on the top of the rail due to dynamic effects
Solution: Grind them off
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3. Heat generated by braking
extreme braking, during
which the wheels simply slide on the rails, generates severe heat. This changes the structure of the steel on the surface of the rail, making it more brittle and therefore more likely to fracture or at least to flake off. This is known as shelling. Solution: Grind it off (maybe) 14 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Rail Fracture Crack growth rate
1. Fracture mechanics (Paris Law): dc/dN = A K n
A and n are constants which describe the behaviour of a
particular material; K is termed the stress intensity factor and is related to the stress conditions and the sharpness of the crack; c is the crack length and N refers to the number of load applications.
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Rail Fracture Crack growth rate
1. Fracture mechanics (Paris Law): dc/dN = A K n
So, in a typical bending test:
Crack length As the crack grows, the stress in the region of the crack tip increases – meaning that crack growth accelerates N 16 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Rail Fracture Tensile You can express a fatigue stress level characteristic like this:
Number of wheel loads to failure 1 10 102 103 104 105 106
• The load tends to reduce as the crack progresses as more load is
taken by other parts of the structure. • The stress intensity will still continue to increase as the area of steel becomes less and less. • This means that, for most of its life, a crack will be small, but that it will grow rapidly towards the end. • Detecting small cracks is therefore important. 17 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Rail Fracture 2. Cracking Mechanism in Rails a) Local Stresses in the Rail Head
• The major principal stress at the
contact is certainly compressive. • This is no problem so far as fatigue is concerned. • BUT around the edge of the contact area, there will be a combination of compression and shear. • And if there is shear in one direction, it is a fair bet that there is tension in another. 18 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Rail Fracture Consider this Contact area element Look at the wheel-rail contact: Shear stress Now draw a Mohr Circle: Shear stress (on vertical Horizontal stress Tensile stress face): (on vertical face): (at a shallow Normal angle to the Shear stress Vertical stress stress horizontal): (on horizontal (on horizontal face): face):
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Rail Fracture
Headchecks: small shallow cracks forming usually at the gauge corner
This is Rolling Contact Fatigue
Solution: grind before the cracks become too large
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Rail Fracture
Rolling Contact Fatigue
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Rail Fracture b) Bending and Shear Stresses
Rolling contact fatigue will not cause cracks to penetrate very
deep into the rail, because the severe stress conditions only occur close to the surface. However, once the crack is initiated, then bending and shear can take over.
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Rail Fracture
Rolling contact fatigue
only gets you a shallow depth into the rail. But cracks can then grow due to rail bending stress.
Tensile Bending moment
stress at distribution top of rail
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Rail Fracture
Crack growth from
Rolling Contact Fatigue
Notice also the way the rail has changed shape
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Rail Fracture
You can in the end get a
complete fracture
In this case the crack has grown from a bolt hole 25 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT
Rail Fracture
The Hatfield Crash (2000)
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3. Crack Detection • There can be inherent defects in rails and imperfect welds. • These are also natural starting points for cracks.
Ultra-sonic Rail Flaw
Detection Equipment: Receiver Transmitter
Flaw/crack 27 WHEEL / RAIL CONTACT Relatively high speed – less certain, Slow manual – 100% certain. Regulations cover the testing frequency depending on the amount of traffic taken.
Ultra-sonic Rail Flaw Detection Equipment:
Train- mounted version:
28 FASTENING SYSTEMS The fastening system has to ensure that the rail is maintained upright and that the gauge is within limits.
Traditional spikes spike driven into wooden sleeper – traditional method
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Bolted fastening early method for concrete sleepers
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Bolted fastening
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Clips Easy to clip in
and clip out
Very commonly used type – made by Pandrol
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Clips
Pandrol Fastclip
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Clips
There are plenty of other
designs being used worldwide
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Pads Functions of pad
Protect sleeper from high contact forces Absorb energy (inc. noise) Electrical insulation Materials: Rubber, polypropylene, EVA etc Thickness: 5 – 15mm Area: 150mm 150mm approximately 35 FASTENING SYSTEMS
Pads
36 FASTENING SYSTEMS
Pads
37 SLEEPERS Functions: Support to rail; Maintaining gauge Materials: Wood, concrete or steel Length: 2.0 – 2.5m Width: 200 – 250mm Depth: 150 – 250mm
Design considerations: Strong enough not to break Resistant to abrasion from below Not too heavy to handle by hand
38 SLEEPERS Typical shapes: Timber (i.e. Wood) Simple to work with Sustainable?? Biodegrades Useful for switch & crossing
39 SLEEPERS
Concrete (Monoblock)
Monoblock
• Cheap to produce • Very durable • Good support to rails • Rather heavy • Not flexible – i.e. less good for switch & crossing 40 SLEEPERS
Concrete (Twinblock)
Twinblock
• Also cheap to produce
• Less heavy • Good track stability • Less good at maintaining • Perfect rail alignment
41 SLEEPERS Steel (note: ballast inside sleeper)
• Expensive • Relatively light & easy to handle • Good track stability • Allows quick installation, especially when bringing an old line back into service 42 SLEEPERS
Under-sleeper pads • Only for concrete sleepers • Expensive; adds up to 50% onto sleeper cost • Often used to counter noise & vibration problems • Also excellent at reducing ballast breakdown and settlement
