Residual stresses and web fracture in roller-straightened rail

Over the past ten years, several accidents involving web fracture of roller-straightened rail, both before and in service, have raised questions on the safety of such rail. This work reviews progress in quantifying the tendency of residual stresses to drive fracture in roller-straightened rail. The available residual stress data and their reliability are discussed. The stress intensity on a long running web crack due to release of the mid-rail longitudinal residual stress field is mentioned. A saw-cutting test has been developed to quantify the severity of residual stresses in roller-straightened rails by relating the curvature changes of the cut ends to the stress intensity K 1 ona web crack at the saw-cut location. Since web cracks actually occur most often at or near rail ends, the stress transients near a cut rail end are calculated and the stress intensity on a short web crack at the rail end is estimated. Lastly, a discussion is given of ongoing work in analyzing the roller-straightening process, to predict the formation and modification of residual stresses for eventual process improvement.

[1]  Pin Tong,et al.  Fracture Problems in the Transportation Industry , 1985 .

[2]  S. J. Wineman,et al.  A saw-cutting test for estimating stress intensity at a rail web crack due to residual stresses , 1990 .

[3]  S. J. Wineman,et al.  Residual stresses near a rail end , 1990 .

[4]  Hiroki Masumoto,et al.  PRODUCTION AND PROPERTIES OF HIGH-SERVICEABILITY RAIL , 1982 .

[5]  O. Orringer,et al.  Applied research on rail fatigue and fracture in the United States , 1984 .

[6]  K. Johnson.  Contact Mechanics: Frontmatter , 1985 .

[7]  村上 敬宜,et al.  Stress intensity factors handbook , 1987 .

[8]  O Orringer,et al.  INVESTIGATION OF CATASTROPHIC FAILURE OF A PREMIUM-ALLOY RAILROAD RAIL , 1985 .

[9]  A D Konyukhov,et al.  COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS FOR ASSESSING RESIDUAL STRESSES IN RAILS , 1973 .

[10]  O. Orringer,et al.  Detail fracture growth in rails: Test results , 1986 .

[11]  David B. Bogy,et al.  On the problem of edge-bonded elastic quarter-planes loaded at the boundary , 1970 .

[12]  S. J. Wineman,et al.  Rail web fracture in the presence of residual stresses , 1987 .

[13]  H. D. Hibbitt,et al.  ABAQUS/EPGEN–A GENERAL PURPOSE FINITE ELEMENT CODE WITH EMPHASIS ON NONLINEAR APPLICATIONS , 1984 .

[14]  G. Horvay.  Some aspects of Saint Venant's principle , 1957 .

[15]  Lempitskiy,et al.  IMPROVING THE SERVICE LIFE AND RELIABILITY OF RAILROAD RAILS , 1973 .

[16]  G. Sih,et al.  Alternating method applied to edge and surface crack problems , 1973 .

[17]  S. J. Kline,et al.  Describing Uncertainties in Single-Sample Experiments , 1953 .

[18]  J J Groom.  DETERMINATION OF RESIDUAL STRESSES IN RAILS , 1983 .