EPFM Analysis of Subsurface Crack Beneath a Wheel Flat Using Dynamic Condition

During running due to frequent braking and suddenly jamming of brakes the Railway wheel skids over rails. This frequent skidding removes large amount of metal from the surface known as Wheel-flat defect. In this paper the wheel-flat and a subsurface crack in the beneath is studied using FEA. If the wheel-flat is not detected early the subsurface crack can originate in the beneath due to inclusion, may leads to fatal accidents. In this study wheel material is taken Elastic-plastic and J-Integral factor has been obtained. The wheel–rail vehicle is modelled as a mass–spring–damper system