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            Framework for Wheel Life Model – Phase I
      

      
  Document Series
              Technical Reports


      
  Author
          Federal Railroad Administration


      
Report Number
              DOT/FRA/ORD-22/25

  Office
              RDI-22


      Subject
                    Track/Train Interactions


      
  Keywords
              Rolling contact fatigue, contact stress, crack growth, crack initiation, creep, fatigue strength, heat treatment, pearlite, wheel damage map, quenching, residual stress, S-660, shakedown, time-temperature-transformation, tread-braking


      

      
      
              
                  
      
              
  Document
              Wheel Life Model-Phase I-A.pdf (9.59 MB)

      
              Researchers developed a model to predict the life of a freight railroad car wheel due to rolling contact fatigue, crack initiation and growth leading to fracture. The Phase I effort includes a literature survey, an estimation of hoop residual stress from manufacturing process, and the effects of mechanical load – including traction and thermal load due to tread-braking on the initial residual stresses distribution in the wheel. An analysis shows how a severe braking event may completely eliminate the beneficial hoop residual stress in the rim of a wheel, which can otherwise delay crack initiation and growth. An approach to include the residual stress in the shakedown theory used to predict rolling contact fatigue is proposed to investigate crack initiation and growth.
      
            
      
      
              Last updated: Tuesday, June 21, 2022 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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