Loss of structural integrity in rails due to rolling contact fatigue (RCF) is a major cause of premature rail replacement within the UK railway industry. Although RCF has been under investigation for many years, it has not been clear why some sites should repeatedly suffer with RCF whereas other sites, with nominally similar curve geometry and traffic levels, do not exhibit any signs of RCF. Recently, the Rail Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) have managed a large research program to investigate RCF in the UK railway network. As part of this program AEA Technology Rail (AEATR) have developed an RCF crack initiation model which is capable of determining which parts of a curve are likely to develop RCF cracks and their initiation life. This model has helped identify the causes of RCF at a number of sites in the UK, and is capable of assessing the effects on fatigue life of different mitigation measures. This paper describes the development of the model and the influence of vehicle dynamics and track geometry features on RCF life.
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