Experimental and numerical study on fretting wear and fatigue of full-scale railway axles

This study investigated the fretting wear and fatigue of full-scale railway axles.Fatigue tests were conducted on full-scale railway axles,and the fretting wear and fretting fatigue in the fretted zone of the railway axles were analysed.Three-dimensional finite element models were established based on the experimental results.Then,multi-axial fatigue parameters and a linear elastic fracture mechanics-based approach were used to investigate the fretting fatigue crack initiation and propagation,respectively,in which the role of the fretting wear was taken into account.The experimental and simulated results showed that the fretted zone could be divided into zones I-III according to the surface damage morphologies.Fretting wear alleviated the stress concentration near the wheel seat edge and resulted in a new stress concentration near the worn/unworn boundary in zone II,which greatly promoted the fretting crack initiation at the inner side of the fretted zone.Meanwhile,the stress concentration also increased the equivalent stress intensity factor range DKeq below the mating surface,and thus promoted the propagation of fretting fatigue crack.Based on these findings,the effect of the stress redistribution resulting from fretting wear is suggested to be taken into account when evaluating the fretting fatigue in railway axles.

Effect of Nb addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of 25CrNiMoV(DZ2)steel for high-speed railway axles

The microstructure,precipitates and properties of 25CrNiMoV(DZ2)steel for high-speed railway axles with different Nb contents were investigated by means of optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy,electron back-scattering diffraction,transmission electron microscopy and physicochemical phase analysis.The results show that the grain size of the original austenite of the test steels decreases from 20.5 to 14.2 and 10.8μm after adding 0.026 and 0.039 wt.%Nb to a 25CrNiMoV steel,respectively.Moreover,the block width of the tempered martensite in the test steels is refined from 1.91 to 1.72 and 1.60µm,respectively.MC-type precipitates in 25CrNiMoV steel are mainly VC,while(Nb,V)C gradually precipitates when Nb is microalloyed,and the amount of precipitates increases with increasing Nb content.Through strengthening mechanism analysis,it is found that grain refinement strengthening is the primary way to increase the strength.The improvement in the yield strength with increasing Nb content is attributed to a significant increase in precipitation strengthening,grain refinement strengthening and dislocation strengthening.

DAMAGE TOLERANCE ANALYSIS ON HOLLOW AXLES OF HIGH SPEED MOTOR TRAINS

According to the rules of UIC515-3, the service loads of the axles are defined, which include some different loads cases as follows： the static loads; the impact loads resulted from running through the rail joints and unevenness rails; the loads through curves and from braking. Through the calculating and analysis, the stress distribution of the hollow axles is obtained for 200 km/h high speed motor trains used in China. At the same time, the fatigue crack growth of hollow axles is studied, and the initial surface cracks of 2 mm depth caused by hard objects strike or the other causes are discussed. On the basis of the linear elastic fracture mechanics theory, the stress intensity factor of the crack of the geometry transition outside the wheel seat is also studied. Associated with fatigue crack propagation equation and the corresponding crack propagation threshold, the crack propagation characteristics under different shapes are calculated. Then the running distances are educed with different shapes propagating to the critical length, and the estimation of the residual lives about hollow axles which are the reference values of examine and repair limit of the hollow axle is given.