Effect of residual stresses on the fatigue lifetime of railway axle

The operation of railway axles should fulfill at least two main demands: safety and low operation costs. A significant part of operation costs is given by the length of regular inspection intervals which should reveal potential fatigue cracks in railway axle. The detection of cracks is of a probabilistic nature, therefore their detection is not ensured in all cases. For the safe operation of trains, an existence of potential initial crack should be considered on the axle surface and residual fatigue lifetime should be conservatively determined for this case. Reliable procedure of residual fatigue lifetime estimation should take into account real axle geometry, material characteristics and loading of the railway axle. This paper shows methodology for determination of residual fatigue lifetime (RFL) based on the fracture mechanics approach, taking into account real spectrum of the loading cycles, existence of press-fitted wheels and surface residual stresses given by the thermo-mechanical surface treatment of the railway axle. It is demonstrated that the effect of the residual stresses is significant and should not be neglected in the numerical estimation of residual fatigue lifetime of the axle.