RAAI Project: Life-prediction and prognostics for railway axles under corrosion-fatigue damage

Abstract Corrosion damage induced by atmospheric agents has been shown to be able to trigger fatigue failures of railway axles. In this paper we firstly discuss consolidated results in modelling the growth of damage under corrosion-fatigue and its detection. This is the background for describing the development of a new prognostic tool within the RAAI EU-funded project. In details, the new tool relies on a new automated scanner able to efficiently analyse optical measurements of the corroded axle surface and a crack growth simulation tool tuned through full-scale measurements of axle corrosion-fatigue damage.