The Influence of Wheel-Rail Contact Forces on The Formation of Rail Shells

A rail shell is a horizontal crack in the head of the rail. It most frequently occurs at the gage corner of the high rail of curves. The goal of this study is to investigate the possible influence of the contact forces at the wheel-rail interface on the formulation of rail shells. These forces are the normal loading due to the weight of the car, the transverse slip forces due to the wheel sliding across the rail, and the longitudinal forces generated by what is known as the “slip-stick effect.” The study consists of two parts. One is the analytical investigation in which the elastic stresses in the rail are found by the finite element method and the other is the investigation of the experimental study.