Effect of wear on rolling contact fatigue crack growth in rails

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the load direction and the phenomenon of wear on rolling contact fatigue crack growth. For this purpose, a UIC60 rail with accurate geometry using FEM is studied. In this regard, a three-dimensional finite element model is provided. The maximum stress caused by wheel/rail contact for a new/worn wheel profiles was obtained using such model. Then, using Franc 3D software, during stress analysis for different situations of wheel, different values of stress intensity factors are obtained. The behavior of crack under fatigue loading was studied using a three-dimensional modeling.