Investigation on Behavior of 3D Surface Crack in Rail under Rolling Contact

Assessment of probability of risk occurrence to the railway system is so important because of severe cost which could be imposed to both railway administration and passengers. Wheel movement on rail is one of the factors which has significant role in overall damage of railway infrastructure. Theses interaction-based defects are divided into several categories such as wheel flat and RCF faults. Nowadays, railway administrations are interested in increasing speed and axle load of rail vehicles due to its economical advantages. Therefore, studies on wheel-rail interaction defect-base become a concern for researchers. Implementing finite element method is a major approach in determining fracture behavior of both wheel and rail. In previous studies, simulations were mainly carried out in 2D domain by considering symmetrical assumptions. The main aim of this paper is to implement FE method based on three dimensional situations with more realistic conditions to assess rail surface crack behavior which is exposed to dynamic moving load. For this purpose, stress intensity factors for different depth of crack was obtained and compared also. The results showed that by increasing crack depth and crack tip position from rail surface, the crack tip stresses and consequently stress intensity factors were decreased.