Reliability and fatigue life evaluation of railway axles

Abstract

The axle is one of the most important components of a rail vehicle which transmits the weight of the vehicle to the wheels, meets the vertical and horizontal loads formed during static and dynamic moving, and carries the driving moment and braking moment. The prediction of fatigue failure of axles plays an important role in preventing fatigue fractures. Varying loads on components lead to cumulative failure in the mechanism. In this study, failures in axles of rail vehicles serving the Istanbul Transportation Co. have been investigated. Statistical evaluation of real life values has been performed by taking into account the kilometer and load cycle. Equivalent stresses have been used to derive life equations and diagrams by using one of the cumulative life theories known as the Palmgren-Miner method. Finally, theoretical and practical Wohler diagrams S-N (σ-N: stress-life) have been plotted to reveal error calculation.

Railway Axle Analyses: Fatigue Damage and Life Analysis of Rail Vehicle Axle

“…Palmgren-Miner damage theory helps to determine an equivalent stress which corresponds to all these stresses [12], [14], [16] and [17]. These variations cause cumulative damage on the axle.…”

“…Also, Bayraktar et al [12] studied life analysis of light rail vehicle axles. Axles exposed to different loads have been analyzed and logarithmic life equations have been obtained due to equivalent stress which is calculated by cumulative damage theory called Palmgren-Miner [13] to [15].…”

Fatigue Reliability Analysis of Motor Hanger for High‐Speed Train Based on Bayesian Updating and Subset Simulation

“…is method not only considers the influence of uncertain factors, but also improves the robustness of fatigue life prediction. Bayraktar et al [15] considering the number of kilometers and load cycles, statistically evaluated the actual life value. And the theoretical and practical Wohler diagrams S-N is plotted to evaluate the fatigue reliability of the axle.…”

Micromechanisms of Ferrite-Pearlite Steels Fracture Under Cyclic and Impact Loading

“…Increase in the intensity of rail transportation leads to the increase of locomotive park usage and decrease its outage, including overhaul periods [1,2]. Such actions require review and extending of existing approaches in particular justification of fatigue life and crack growth resistance of railway axle steel [3][4][5].…”