Simulation of Fatigue Crack Propagation in Railway Axles

摘要

The need for optimizing inspection intervals of wheelsets has led to increasing attention to those of railway axles. This paper addresses this issue by comparing predictions obtained by an EPFM model and two widely used fatigue crack growth softwares (namely AFGROW and NASGRO) with a set of propagation data derived from small and full-scale specimens made of 30NiCrMoV12, a high strength steel used for railway axles. Comparisons, made under constant amplitude and block loading, support the application of the considered fatigue crack growth algorithms to the estimation of inspection intervals.