Numerical study on fatigue crack growth in railway wheels under the influence of residual stresses

• This paper provides a method for solving 3D fatigue crack growth in railway wheels.
• A 3D non-linear finite element model has been applied to estimate the stress field.
• Failure of wheel was analyzed to identify the cause.
• The stress history is used to calculate stress intensity factors and fatigue life of wheel.
• Results are in good agreement with those achieved in field measurements.

Accurate prediction of fatigue crack growth on railway wheels and the influence of residual stresses by finite element method (FEM) modeling can affect the maintenance planning. Therefore, investigation of rolling contact fatigue and its effect on rolling members life seem necessary. The objective of this paper is to provide a prediction of rolling contact fatigue crack growth in the rail wheel under the influence of stress field from mechanical loads and heat treatment process of a railway wheel. A 3D nonlinear stress analysis model has been applied to estimate stress fields of the railway mono-block wheel in heat treatment process. Finite element analysis model is presented applying the elastic–plastic finite element analysis for the rail wheel under variable thermal loads. The stress history is then used to calculate stress intensity factors (SIFs) and fatigue life of railway wheel. The effect of several parameters, vertical loads, initial crack length and friction coefficient between the wheel and rail, on the fatigue life in railway wheels is investigated using the suggested 3-D finite element model. Three-dimensional finite element analysis results obtained show good agreement with those achieved in field measurements.