Fatigue life assessment for brake disc of railway vehicle

The brake disc of a railway should have stability. After long-term use, the brake disc may be seriously damaged by thermal fatigue cracks on the frictional surface. In this study, fatigue tests were carried out for a brake disc material (GC25). Furthermore, in order to determine the cause of the thermal fatigue cracks, contact pressure and thermal stress analyses were performed. From these results, the linear relation between temperature and stress variations was obtained, and the remaining life assessment of the brake disc of a railway vehicle was performed by using it.