Investigation of the Fatigue and Fracture in the Wheel-Rail Contact

Development of the transportation industry is one of the important indicators for the development of the countries. Railway steel wheels in their work life always roll and rarely slid on the rails. The rolling motion causes fatigue loading applied on each point of the wheel and rail surfaces. This is known as rolling contact fatigue (RCF) which is a multi-axial fatigue because of nonlinearity of the contact phenomenon as well as the wheel and rail profiles. RCF damages develop due to the initiation and propagation of the surface and subsurface cracks in the wheels and rails. Surface cracks mainly are removed in contrast with the wear but subsurface ones are propagated and concluded deeper fractures with more prone accident. This article investigates rolling contact fatigue phenomenon, its damage mechanisms, effective parameters in prevention and control of the RCF and reviews some researches about it.