Gaps,challenges and possible solution for prediction of wheel-rail rolling contact fatigue crack initiation

The prediction of wheel/rail rolling contact fatigue(RCF)crack initiation during railway operations is an important task.Since RCF crack evolution is influenced by many factors,its prediction process is complex.This paper reviews the existing approaches to predict RCF crack initiation.The crack initiation region is predicted by the shakedown map.By combining the shakedown map with various initiation criteria and the critical plane method,the crack initiation life is calculated.The classification,methodologies,theories and applications of these approaches are included in this paper.The advantages and limitations of these methods are analyzed to provide recommendation for RCF crack initiation prediction.This review highlights that wheel/rail dynamic characteristic,complex working conditions,surface defects and wear all affect the RCF crack initiation.The optimal selection of criteria is essential in the crack initiation prediction.Based on the research gap regarding the challenging process of crack initiation prediction detailed in this review,a proposed prediction process of RCF crack initiation is proposed to achieve a more accurate result.

Effects of Service Condition on Rolling Contact Fatigue Failure Mechanism and Lifetime of Thermal Spray Coatings——A Review

The service condition determines the Roiling Contact Fatigue（RCF） failure mechanism and lifetime under ascertain material structure integrity parameter of thermal spray coating. The available literature on the RCF testing of thermal spray coatings under various condition services is considerable; it is generally difficult to synthesize all of the result to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the parameters which has a great effect on a thermal spray coating＇s resistance of RCF. The effects of service conditions（lubrication states, contact stresses, revolve speed, and slip ratio） on the changing of thermal spray coatings＇ contact fatigue lifetime is introduced systematically. The effects of different service condition on RCF failure mechanism of thermal spray coating from the change of material structure integrity are also summarized. Moreover, In order to enhance the RCF performance, the parameter optimal design formula of service condition and material structure integrity is proposed based on the effect of service condition on thermal spray coatings＇ contact fatigue lifetime and RCF failure mechanism. The shortage of available literature and the forecast focus in future researches are discussed based on available research. The explicit result of RCF lifetime law and parameter optimal design formula in term of lubrication states, contact stresses, revolve speed, and slip ratio, is significant to improve the RCF performance on the engineering application.

TOOTH CURVES AND ENTIRE CONTACT AREA IN PROCESS OF SPLINE COLD ROLLING

In spline rolling process, the contact area between roller and workpiece plays an important role in calculating rolling-force and rolling-moment. For the purpose of studying the contact area, contact state between roller and workpiece in process of spline cold rolling based upon cross rolling is analyzed. According to the suitable hypothesis, the mathematic model of roller-tooth-curve in optional position of rolling process is established. Combing the theory of conjugate curves with the theory of envelope curve, the corresponding mathematic model of workpiece-tooth-curve is established. By utilizing establishing mathematic models, the algorithm of entire contact area in rolling process is created. On the basis of the algorithm, calculation-program is compiled under MATLAB program language environment. The calculation-program actualizes quantitative analysis and quantitative calculation of contact areas. Utilizing the calculation-program, the influence of parameters on contact area is analyzed, and the tendency is consistent with the manufacturing experience. In consideration of rolling-force optimization, the primary process parameters may be selected according to results of calculation. The result of the present study may provide basis for research on rolling-force and rolling-moment.

Analysis and Numerical Simulation of Rolling Contact between Sphere and Cone

In non-conforming rolling contact, the contact stress is highly concentrated in the contact area. However, there are some limitations of the special contact model and stress model used for the theoretical study of the phenomenon, and this has prevented in-depth analysis of the associated friction, wear, and failure. This paper is particularly aimed at investigating the area of rolling contact between a sphere and a cone, for which purpose the boundary is determined by the Hertz theory and the geometries of the non-conforming surfaces. The phenomenon of stick-slip contact is observed to occur in the contact area under the condition of no-full-slip（Q 〈 μ·P）. Using the two-dimensional rolling contact theory developed by CARTER, the relative positions of the stick and slip regions and the distribution of the tangential force over the contact area are analyzed. Furthermore, each stress component is calculated based on the Mc Ewen theory and the idea of narrow band. The stress equations for the three-dimensional rolling contact between the sphere and the cone are obtained by the principle of superposition, and are used to perform some numerical simulations. The results show that the stress components have a large gradient along the boundary between the stick and slip regions, and that the maximum stress is inversely proportional to the contact coefficient and proportional to the friction coefficient. A new method for investigating the stress during non-classical three-dimensional rolling contact is proposed as a theoretical foundation for the analysis of the associated friction, wear, and failure.

Rail fatigue crack propagation in high-speed wheel/rail rolling contact

To study the wheel/rail rolling contact fatigue of high-speed trains, we obtain the distribution of contact forces between wheel and rail by introducing the strain-rate effect. Based on the finite element simulation, a two-dimensional finite element model is established, and the process of a wheel rolling over a crack is analyzed to predict the crack propagation direction. The statistics of possible crack prop- agation angles are calculated by the maximum circumfer- ential stress criterion. The crack path is then obtained by using the average crack propagation angle as the crack propagation direction according to Weibull distribution. Results show that the rail crack mode of low-speed trains is different from that of high-speed trains. The rail crack propagation experiences a migration from opening mode to sliding mode under the low-speed trains; however, the rail crack mainly propagates in the opening mode under high- speed trains. Furthermore, the crack propagation rate for high-speed trains is faster than that for low-speed trains. The simulated crack paths are consistent with the experimental ones, which proves that it is reasonable to use the average value of possible crack propagation directions as the actual crack propagation direction.

Numerical Analysis of Rolling-sliding Contact with the Frictional Heat in Rail

Thermal damage caused by frictional heat of rolling-sliding contact is one of the most important failure forms of wheel and rail. Many studies of wheel-rail frictional heating have been devoted to the temperature field, but few literatures focus on wheel-rail thermal stress caused by frictional heating. However, the wheel-rail creepage is one of important influencing factors of the thermal stress In this paper, a thermo-mechanical coupling model of wheel-rail rolling-sliding contact is developed using thermo-elasto-plastic finite element method. The effect of the wheel-rail elastic creepage on the distribution of heat flux is investigated using the numerical model in which the temperature-dependent material properties are taken into consideration. The moving wheel-rail contact force and the frictional heating are used to simulate the wheel rolling on the rail. The effect of the creepage on the temperature rise, thermal strain, residual stress and residual strain under wheel-rail sliding-rolling contact are investigated. The investigation results show that the thermally affected zone exists mainly in a very thin layer of material near the rail contact surface during the rolling-sliding contact. Both the temperature and thermal strain of rail increase with increasing creepage. The residual stresses induced by the frictional heat in the surface layer of rail appear to be tensile. When the creepage is large, the frictional heat has a significant influence on the residual stresses and residual strains of rail. This paper develops a thermo-meehanical coupling model of wheel-rail rolling-sliding contact, and the obtained results can help to understand the mechanism of wheel/rail frictional thermal fatigue.

Rolling contact fatigue of silicon nitride bearing balls under pure rolling condition

A newly developed pure rolling fatigue test rig with three contact points for bearing bails was used to perform rolling contact fatigue （RCF） tests. The fatigue properties of GCrl5 steel bails and two kinds of Si3N4 ceramic balls （GSN-200 and NBD-200） produced with different technologies were compared. Ball surfaces were examined after failure with optical microscope and scanning electron microscope （SEM）. It was identified by tests that the failure mode of ceramic balls was surface spail. The main factor of ceramic bail failure was principal tensile stress. Life tests data, summarized in accordance with the Weibull theory, showed that the life of GSN-200 balls was close to that of GCrl5 balls, whereas the life of NBD-200 balls was much longer than those of GSN-200 and GCr15. Under the same working condition, the temperature rise of all ceramic bails was lower than that of steel balls, and their crack propagation rates were slower than that of steel balls.

Wheel-rail contact model for railway vehicle-structure interaction applications:development and validation

An enhancement in the wheel-rail contact model used in a nonlinear vehicle-structure interaction(VSI)methodology for railway applications is presented,in which the detection of the contact points between wheel and rail in the concave region of the thread-flange transition is implemented in a simplified way.After presenting the enhanced formulation,the model is validated with two numerical applications(namely,the Manchester Benchmarks and a hunting stability problem of a sus-pended wheelset),and one experimental test performed in a test rig from the Railway Technical Research Institute(RTRI)in Japan.Given its finite element(FE)nature,and contrary to most of the vehicle multibody dynamic commercial software that cannot account for the infrastructure flexibility,the proposed VSI model can be easily used in the study of train-bridge systems with any degree of complexity.The validation presented in this work proves the accuracy of the proposed model,making it a suitable tool for dealing with different railway dynamic applications,such as the study of bridge dynamics,train running safety under different scenarios(namely,earthquakes and crosswinds,among others),and passenger riding comfort.

The Morphology of Rolling Contact Fatigue Fracture of Hardened Steels

Rolling Contact Fatigue(RCF) is a cumulative damage phenomenon when metals are subjected to repeated contact stresses. The fomation of pitting on the contact surface is the result of the rolling contact fatigue. The morphologies of rolling contact fatigue fracture of the har- dened steels (86CrHoV7, 42CrMo) show that strong resemblance in fractuye mechanisms exists between rolling contact fatigue and uni-axial fatigue. Since fatigue striations are hardly observed in hardened steels under uni-axial fatigue, it is interesting to note that the state of stress in rolling contact fatigue is more favor- able to ductile fractures than in uni-axial fatigue.

Effects of Lateral Motion on the Creep Forces in Wheel/Rail Rolling Contact

The influences of the lateral motion of a single wheelset running on a tangent railway on the creepages and creep forces between wheel and rail are investigated with numerical methods. The effect of the yaw motion of wheelset is neglected in the analysis, and Kalker’s theory of three dimensional elastic bodies in rolling contact is employed to analyze the creep forces in the wheel/rail rolling contact with Non Hertzian form.

ROLLING CONTACT FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF CERAMIC BALLS LUBRICATED BY LUBRICANTS WITH EXTREME PRESSURE ADDITIVES

An experiment is conducted to investigate the effects of lubricant10#, which contains extreme pressure additives T304 and T305, on the rolling contact fatigue （RCF） life of the contact pairs of a Si3N4 ceramic ball and a steel rod. The experimental investigation is carried out using a ball-rod RCF test rig. The results show that the extreme pressure additives increase the anti-contact-fatigue performance of ceramic balls; When the content of the additives varies from 1% to 5%, the increasing gradient of the RCF life curve decreases; And the oil sample with 1% T305 additive corresponds to the maximal gradient of the RCF life curve, with the RCF life being increased by about 10.77 times. The fatigue surface of the ceramic ball is analyzed with scanning electron microscope （SEM） and X-ray electron dispersion analysis（EDAX）, and the physical model of extreme pressure additives＇ increasing the RCF life of the ceramic ball is proposed. It is found that the extreme pressure additives form a corrosive film and a transfer film on the surface of the ceramic ball, which decrease the surface tangential stress, and to increase the surface energy is the most effective means for increasing the RCF life.

Investigation of the Relation between Rolling Contact Fatigue Property and Microstructure on the Surface Layer of D2 Wheel Steel

Through the rolling contact fatigue experiment under the condition of the lubricating oil, this article investigated the relation between contact fatigue property and microstructure on the surface layer of D2 wheel steel. The results showed that although the roughness of the original specimen induced by mechanical processing would diminish to some extent in the experiment, the 0.5 - 1.5 μm thick layer of ultrafine microstructure on the original mechanically-processed specimen surface would still become micro-cracks and small spalling pits due to spalling, and would further evolve into fatigue crack source. Additionally, even under the impact of the load that was not adequate to make the material reach fatigue limit, the ferrite in the microstructure underwent plastic deformation, which led the refinement of proeutectoid ferrite grains. During the experiment, the hardening and the refinement caused by plastic deformation consisted with the theory that dislocation gave rise to plastic deformation and grain refinement. The distribution laws of hardness and ferrite grain sizes measured could be explained by the distribution law of the shearing stress in the subsurface.

The Effects of Different Post-Heat Treatments on Rolling Contact Fatigue Behaviors of Direct Laser Cladding Inconel 625 Coatings

In this paper,the microstructures and rolling contact fatigue behaviors of laser cladding Inconel 625 coatings with or without post-heat treatments were analyzed.The results revealed that the fatigue resistance of the laser cladding coating after any post-heat treatment was worse than that of the as-deposited coating.First,through the finite element analysis,the distribution of stress along the thickness direction of the coating was obtained,and it was concluded that the bonding interface between the coating and the matrix had little effect on the fatigue properties of the coating.Then X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM)and energy dispersive spectrometry(EDS)were used to analyze the microstructure and failure morphology.The results revealed that the subsurface failure morphology of the coatings showed a consistent correlation with rolling fatigue property after different heat treatments.The TCP phase and carbides have been shown in the laser cladding coating.The coating after stress relieved annealing exhibited chain-shaped granular carbides on the grain boundaries which could accelerate crack propagation.The aging heat treatment made small amounts of Laves phase dissolved in the coating,while the dispersed phase was precipitated which could result in the formation of pores.And the solution treatment made large amounts of Laves phase dissolved,while the rod-shape brittle phases were generated which was easy to fracture and contribute to crack initiation and spalling.

Influence of railway wheel tread damage on wheel-rail impact loads and the durability of wheelsets

Dynamic wheel-rail contact forces induced by a severe form of wheel tread damage have been measured by a wheel impact load detector during full-scale field tests at different vehicle speeds.Based on laser scanning,the measured three-dimensional damage geometry is employed in simulations of dynamic vehicle-track interaction to calibrate and verify a simulation model.The relation between the magnitude of the impact load and various operational parameters,such as vehicle speed,lateral position of wheel-rail contact,track stiffness and position of impact within a sleeper bay,is investigated.The calibrated model is later employed in simulations featuring other forms of tread damage;their effects on impact load and subsequent fatigue impact on bearings,wheel webs and subsurface initiated rolling contact fatigue of the wheel tread are assessed.The results quantify the effects of wheel tread defects and are valuable in a shift towards condition-based maintenance of running gear,and for general assessment of the severity of different types of railway wheel tread damage.

Friction Characteristics of Space Lubricating Oil No.4129 in Rolling and Sliding Contact

The friction coefficients between the surfaces of a ball and a disc lubricated by a space lubricating oil No.4129 were measured at various operating conditions on a ball-disc friction test rig. Friction characteristic curves were obtained under sliding and rolling movements at point contact. A new model for calculation of the friction coefficient was presented. The results show that the bigger the load is, the larger the friction coefficient becomes. The rolling speed ranging from 1 m/s to10 m/s has an important effect on the friction coefficient. The friction coefficient increases with the increase in sliding speed and the decrease in rolling speed. The linear variation region of the friction coefficient versus the sliding speed at high rolling speed is wider than that at low rolling speed. The model for calculation of the friction coefficient is accurate for engineering use.

A Cumulative Damage Reliability Model on the Basis of Contact Fatigue of the Rolling Bearing

A cumulative damage reliability model of contact fatigue of the rolling bearing is more identical with the actual conditions. It is put forward on the basis of contact fatigue life probability distribution of the rolling bearing that obey Weibull distribution and rest on the Miner cumulative damage theory. Finally a case is given to predict the reliability of bearing roller by using these models.

Contact position controlling for two-dimensional motion bodies by the boundary element method

An algorithm is presented for controlling two-dimensional motion contact bodies with conforming discretization. Since a kind of special boundary element is utilized in the algorithm, the displacement compatibility and traction equilibrium conditions at nodes can be satisfied simultaneously in arbitrary locations of the contact interface. In addition, a method is also proposed in which the contact boundary location can be moved flexibly on the possible contact boundary. This method is effective to deal with moving and rolling contact problems on a possible larger moving or rolling contact region. Numerical examples show effectiveness of the presented scheme.

State-of-Arts of Mechanics of Rolling Contact and Its Application to Analysis of the Interactions between Wheel and Rail

A few typical models of theory on rolling contact of bodies are reviewed, and the advantages and disadvantages in the applications to the dynamics of railway vehicles and the wheel/rail rolling contact are discussed in detail in the present paper.

Life prediction for rolling contact fatigue crack initiation of kiln wheels

这份报纸关于轴行偏转调查火炉车轮的滚动接触疲劳，它与车轮上的应用支持的负担是线性的。为有弹性的临时的便床，塑料临时的便床和 ratcheting 材料回答的疲劳裂缝开始标准被使用与轴的行偏转的二个集合估计车轮回答。有限元素模拟被使用双线性的材料模式为执行非线性、运动学在 ANSYS 11.0 变硬。由从不同 critera 比较结果，低周期的疲劳是支配的失败，这被显示出。从不同的轴的线偏转的结果显示最佳调整罐头极大地提高支持的结构的整个生活。

Rolling-contact-fatigue behavior in backup roll of 5% Cr forged steel

With a focus on the backup roll, a rolling-contact-fatigue experiment was performed on samples of 5% Cr forged steel. The P-S-N fatigue curves were determined and the fatigue strength was calculated. The emergence of cracks on the test-sample surfaces was observed at different fatigue cycles. A micro-hardness tester was used to measure the hardness of the subsurface fatigue layer. The microstructures were analyzed at various magnifications with an optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscope. Based on these tests, the rolling-contact-fatigue mechanism of the large forged steel backup roll was also considered. The results showed that the contact-fatigue strength of the tested backup roll steel was 1 249 MPa;the surface fatigue crack lengthened continuously as the number of cycles increased and followed an S-shaped curve; the subsurface fatigue hardness reached its highest value at about 90 （HV） increment from the matrix hardness of 540 （HV） in the backup roll; the subsurface martensite/bainite microstructure was crushed and the dislocation density was greatly increased. Under alternating contact stresses,the surface/subsurface material was damaged and exhibited many microdefects. At the least, the surface fatigue layer on backup rolls should be fully removed before the microcracks enter a period of rapid propagation.