Effect of Lubricant on Surface Crack Propagation and Fatigue Life of One-Way Rail in Rail-Wheel Contact

摘要

Fatigue crack growth leads to railway wheel and rail failure and damage to other parts. For this reason, 3D modeling of fatigue crack growth, study of the effect of different factors and phenomena on the fatigue life of railway wheel and rail are important issues. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the fatigue crack growth and estimation of fatigue life of one-way rail due to the presence of lubricant under the influence of periodic overloads and its effect on fatigue life. In this paper, the boundary element method is used for the fatigue crack growth under the influence of presence of lubricant. This study investigates the influence of various factors on fatigue crack growth and fatigue life such as the coefficient of friction between railway wheel and rail, the friction coefficient of crack surfaces, the initial length of crack and the hydraulic pressure caused by the presence of lubricant into the surface crack. The results showed that as the frictional force increases, the slip surface cracks on top of each other decrease and as a result the fatigue crack growth intensity decreases and since rail-wheel wet contact is an effective parameter in reducing the friction of crack surfaces, it can increase the stress intensity factor of mode II and reduce the fatigue life.