Prediction of Fatigue Crack Growth in Rail Steels.

PDFTech ReportFRA/ORD-81/31DOT-TSC-FRA-80-30DOT-TSC-1076-2Computer programsCrackingFatigue (Mechanics)Railroad tracksRepeated loadsStatistical analysisSteelUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Railroad AdministrationBroek, D.Rice, Richard C.Battelle Memorial Institute. Columbus LaboratoriesJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)United States. Federal Railroad AdministrationAGR-INFRASTRUCTURE-RailroadsNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail SafetyNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-RAIL TRANSPORTATIONNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Rail SafetyNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITYVolpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference CenterMeasures to prevent derailments due to fatigue failures of rails require adequate knowledge of the rate of propagation of fatigue cracks under service loading. The report presents a computational model for the prediction of crack growth in rails. The model was derived on the basis of experiments of crack growth under service simulation loading. The applications of the model are discussed. Material data on fatigue crack growth in rail steels are required for the execution of the predictive model. Such data were generated during the present program, but reported elsewhere