Modeling damage mechanics of railway tracks to evolve control strategies for derailment prevention

摘要

Purpose - With an eye to prevent derailment of high-speed trains, vis-a-vis unwarranted loss of lives and property, this paper aims to develop a formalism of designing a suitable control system with embedded decision support system. Design/methodology/approach - A model of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) crack propagation in railway tracks is designed, simulating the alarming stress intensity factor around the advancing fatigue cracks. COMSOL multi-physics software is employed to design the RCF crack monitoring system with acoustic emission (AE) count signals, describing the damage threshold of railway tracks. Findings - Simulation experiment on stress intensity factor for cracks in real life rail sections has enabled to describe the maximum working stress; it has been noticed that the threshold value of stress intensity factor (～41 MPa m~(1/2)) for the onset of unstable crack propagation is reached at a fatigue crack length of 11.5 mm. It is further noticed that the observed AE count at a particular instant of time in a specific location of railway track is a true indication of the vulnerability of rail failures. Originality/value - The proposed model, a completely new of its kind, bears a high socio-technological value as it entails the design of an intelligent control system to prevent train accidents.