Plastic ratchetting of railhead material in the vicinity of insulated rail joints with wheel and thermal loads

Residual stress and plastic strain, equivalent plastic strain and permanent deformation of railhead material in the vicinity of IRJ are presented. The strain data depict damage of endpost materials and ratchetting failure of rail ends due to vertical wheel load and axial thermal load. The ratchetting failure modes follow the established trend of decay in the ratchetting rate in successive wheel load cycles. The size of the plastic zone in the railhead materials is also identified.