Numerical Simulation of Fatigue Crack Propagation in a Steel Railway Wheel

摘要

The objective of this paper is to study the influence of the loading intensity and the crack parameters (length and depth) on the fatigue crack propagation rate in a steel railway wheel. The fatigue crack propagation rate is determined by considering that the physical process of propagation is governed by the local damage in the tip of the crack. The values of the stress intensity factors KI and KII have been calculated by using an elastic analysis. The problem has been studied by the aid of the Finite Element Method (FEM) under the hypothesis of plane deformation state. The load, assumed in the form of a moving Hertzian contact pressure, is applied by using a user DLOAD subroutine which has been implemented in the FEM commercial code Abaqus/Standard.