Fracture in a rubber-sprung railway wheel

In the year 1998 near Eschede the German ICE-high speed train Wilhelm-Conrad Röntgen got into an accident on its way from Munich to Hamburg with catastrophic results. The broken wheel tyre of the rubber-sprung wheel finally was identified as reason for the accident. The following paper deals with numerical stress analyses as well as with fracture mechanical evaluations for this ICE-wheel tyre fracture.