Simulation of damage in railway crossings - a comparison of rail steel grades R350HT and rolled Mn13

The application of a multidisciplinary\ua0methodology for the prediction of rail damage in railway\ua0crossings is demonstrated. Two rail steel grades are\ua0compared: R350HT and rolled Mn13. Based on a load\ua0sequence designed by Latin hypercube sampling\ua0considering the variation in traffic conditions, the results\ua0include the calculated plastic deformation and wear after\ua0a load collective corresponding to 0.8 MGT of traffic.\ua0The methodology has been introduced in earlier work but\ua0is here improved in terms of computational efficiency.\ua0Wheel-rail normal contact is solved using a Hertzian-based\ua0metamodel accounting for the inelastic material\ua0response. It is shown that the rolled Mn13 crossing\ua0experiences more ratchetting strain than the R350HT\ua0counterpart