Study on technique criterion for reuse of rails on curved line

Side wear of rail on curves with small radius is a normal phenomenon in railway engineering. A great quantity of rail wear results in decreasing rail life in use and increasing railway transportation costs. In order to extend the rail life in use, rails on curved line are reused by changing sides in practice and good results are obtained. However, in performing reuse of rails by changing sides, when the rails should change sides and when the rails should be stopped in use are usually controlled by experience, and it is short of theoretical basis and operation regularities. In this paper, based on investigating the reuse of rails on curves by changing sides in site, analyzing the strength of side wear rail by finite element method, dynamic tests in site and fatigue experiments for worn rails, the technique criterion for reuse of rails on curved line are presented.